Konoha Juu ni
by Shinen no Hikari
Summary: Au. what would happen if the leaf twelve were friends even before they united after graduation. pairings hinted at later on but none yet. rating may change as the story progresses. well what are you waiting for read and review already.
1. Gathering of the leaves

AN: Well this is my third fanfic and I hope it turns out better in my eyes than my first and better in the viewer's eyes than my second. So let's go and get a nice combo platter going shall we.

**AN 2: FINISHED**

Disclaimer: I've said it before and all say it again I don't own Naruto and if you give me trouble for it you can take it up with my lawyer (who has yet to leave high school, but I'm getting good with law too so between the two of us…).

_**Chapter 1: The Gathering of the leaves**_

Naruto was out strolling through the village. He loved his village, but the big meanies always gave him a funny look, that gave him a bad feeling and made him want to stay off the streets during the day, so he didn't really ever get to have a good look at things while the sun was out. He wasn't really bothered by it though the shadows of the night and the glow of the moon just gave the village a different glow that was non-existent during the day. Besides the matron of the orphanage didn't take enough notice of him so he doubted he'd be missed anyway.

He was making what looked to be his third round around the village and had just passed the Hyuga manor again when he heard a muffled scream. He decided to go check it out. He awkwardly climbed his way up and over the fence to see what looked like a ninja carrying a sack over its shoulder. Now Naruto was no genius but when a sack moves it's generally easy to believe that it has something living in it and boy was this sack moving like crazy. So Naruto did the first thing that came to mind, "HELP!" okay so it wasn't the brightest thing the boy could have done but it worked… sort of. As soon as the call left his lips the ANBU that were patrolling this sector of the village at this time of night attacked the kidnapper and released his captive. Unfortunately for Naruto the person immediately turned around, took a kunai knife from his hip pouch, and struck him through his left lung with it. He quickly passed out thinking 'So much for my normal walk in the village. Well at least I got to play the hero for once.'

Hiashi came out of his room in the Hyuga manor upon hearing the call for help. He was stunned upon what he came out to see. An ANBU patrol was tying up the cloud representative and placing him under arrest. This confused him until he found the now empty sack on the ground with his daughter not a far ways away from it shaking what looked like the local jinchuuriki who he assumed was the one to give the call for assistance. Currently he was lying on his back with a kunai knife sticking out of the left side of his chest. Thankfully he wasn't the only one to have come out of the household upon the call for help, "Hizashi take this boy to the hospital and get him medical attention. Don't take no for an answer and if they refuse to help him tell them that this is an order from the head of the Hyuga clan Hiashi Hyuga-sama himself."  
"Hai Hiashi-sama!" and with that Hizashi was off. Hiashi felt no different from the rest of the village as far as the boy was concerned, that is to say he should be held at a distance; however, he was never one to refuse granting his gratitude to those who have earned it and who better would deserve such gratitude than the boy who had saved his precious daughter, the heir of his clan. 'Perhaps that boy is more than we give him credit for, hm… only time will tell I suppose.'

Hinata never left the boy's side the entire time he was in the hospital and worried about him every second she was there. Surprisingly her father didn't mind her staying there with him. He came by every once in a while with her mother to check up on her and see how the boy was doing but besides that he worried very little. She was glad that she wasn't alone while staying there as long as she had been there she had also been with an old man who stayed by his side. She had seen him around the village every once in a while but she didn't know very much about him except that people respected him. Once she had even worked up the courage to talk to him, "Ano, sir could you tell me who you are. I'm just wondering are you his ojii-sama?" Hinata asked in her meek voice.

He chuckled and responded, "No, young one, I'm not his grandfather even though he sometimes calls me that. I'm the Hokage and I'm quite possibly the only one who looks after him. He has no relatives and no friends. It's sad really." The old man explained to her.

"What's his name Hokage-sama?" She asked even more shyly now than before now that she knew that she was talking to the leader of her village. She knew about all of the Hokage and she felt kind of silly and ashamed not noticing that this was one of those legendary ninja.

The Hokage noticed this and responded amusedly, "His name is Naruto Uzumaki." They waited there for him to wake up for a week and with every passing day Hinata's fear for the boy's life grew worse and worse no matter how many of the doctors said that he would be alright until finally after that week of waiting he regained consciousness.

As soon as he woke up he looked to Hinata and asked, "Who are you?"

She deeply blushed and gave a nervous reply, "I'm Hinata Hyuga. Thank you for saving my life a few days ago Naruto-kun. I'm glad that you are okay now."

He smiled and continued the conversation, "I was happy to be of assistance seeing as I was in the area anyway. Don't worry about me there's no way that someone awesome like me would die that easily. I'm going to be the Hokage one day! What kind of Hokage would I be if I could be killed that easily" Naruto said beaming with pride at his dream which made Hinata giggles. The conversation continued this way for a while with Naruto and Hinata getting to know each other until the Hokage said that Hinata would have to leave so that Naruto could get some rest, but that she could come back tomorrow.

Ever since that day they spent every second that they could together, under strict supervision of course seeing as who he is and how lacking people's trust is in him, to the point that Hiashi even let Naruto practice with Hinata occasionally. Most of the time it would be Hinata's cousin Neji who would watch over Hinata and while he was extremely distant at first Naruto's natural charisma eventually got to him and he soon became Naruto's friend too. Now he would never be able to perform the juken style of fighting but he was able to go through the chakra control exercises for them –and boy did he need to –as well as he made for a much more decent sparring partner for Hinata than her father simply because there was a much smaller age gap between them as well as the fact that as long as Naruto was there Hinata's confidence was flying higher than any other Hyugas; as well as she was able to keep him grounded whenever he became arrogant. They would hang out with each other every day to the point that they even went and signed up for the academy together when they were seven and sat by each other every day in class.

Sasuke was sitting in his usual desk, as usual as one becomes after a week of school, listening to Mizuki-sensei's lecture, counting down the minutes until recess because after Recess was his favorite part of day.

""

"Well that's the bell. Everyone remember to meet by the training dummies after recess for sparring matches. You will be paired up by random drawing so be ready. Dismissed." Mizuki told them before the class charged out of the room.

Recess was uneventful, that is to say nothing new happened for Sasuke it was just another day of hiding from his fan girls. He had to use everything his aniiki had ever taught him to get away from them sometimes, but the bright side was it gave him a means to test his evasive skills.

When he got to the sparring area Mizuki-sensei was already handing out numbers to decide who was going against whom. He walked up to Mizuki-sensei and took a sheet of paper from the box he had. He pulled out the number "4" putting his match as the second one of the day and his partner as whoever had "3".

He sat down waiting for his match not worrying about who he would be paired against, after all he had yet to lose a sparring match during the entire time he had been at the academy and the semester was half-way over. There were few people he hadn't beaten left in his class so he just sat and watched the first fight which was between Chouji Akimichi and Kiba Inuzuka. Each came from a clan that focused on taijutsu and taijutsu modifying techniques so it was sure to be an interesting fight. True to his assessment the spar lasted almost the entire ten minutes allowed without either side gaining the upper hand; however, the Inuzuka's agility won out in the end and he was able to get a quick kick to Chouji's chest as the Akimichi over extended himself in a last ditch haymaker. The end result had Chouji knocked out of the ring seconds before the match ended.

Sasuke stood as soon as the match ended entering the sparring ring, aka a circle drawn in the dirt about five meters in radius, as Kiba walked out of it with a triumphant smirk spread across his face. He stood there waiting for whoever his opponent would be to enter the ring and Mizuki to call the fight. What shocked him though was who his opponent showed himself to be.

Standing across from him was Naruto Uzumaki the dead last of the class. Granted he was one of the few people in the class who Sasuke had never beaten and like Sasuke, Naruto had never been beaten either, but Naruto had to be ranked last in the class for a reason and there was no way he was going to lose to the lowest ranked member of his class, so he couldn't help but smirk arrogantly as he and Naruto got into position waiting on Mizuki-sensei to give the signal to begin, neither combatant meeting the other's eyes.

As soon as Mizuki-sensei gave the signal they each lunged at each other Sasuke throwing a quick jab at Naruto's face, which forced Naruto to duck down sliding forward in a variation of a sweep kick meant to take Sasuke's legs out from underneath him had Sasuke not jumped over it. Naruto straightened to his feet and Sasuke did a quick flip both returning to their base stance before moving to engage one another once again this time each throwing a punch that the other caught. Naruto used their position leaning back and pulling preparing himself for a head butt; however, Sasuke had other plans and used this new found shift in momentum pushing off with his legs to launch himself up and over Naruto putting them back to back. Sasuke then spun clockwise using his right foot as a stand to deliver a spin kick with his left, which Naruto turned around and stopped with his arms in a cross block guard high to his right while he used his legs to sweep kick Sasuke's remaining leg from under him. Sasuke turned his fall into a cartwheel which he transitioned into a back handspring to get some distance between himself and Naruto as they both once again returned to their beginning stance.

Sasuke was unimpressed by the situation because he knew what Naruto wanted. He wanted the same thing that everyone else wanted. All of the girls wanted to be with, and all the guys wanted to prove they were better than him, better than the great Uchiha. Sasuke knew exactly what Naruto wanted. He was no different. Or at least that is what Sasuke thought. But it just didn't make sense. Things just weren't adding up. Naruto must want to gain the respect of defeating an Uchiha, then how come when Naruto struck it felt more like he was trying to pull more out of Sasuke? Why did it feel like when they were engaged they were the only people that mattered at that moment, like the rest of the world didn't matter? It felt like Mizuki-sensei's opinion didn't matter, like Fugaku's opinion didn't matter, like Itachi's, or Hokage-sama's, or Mikoto's, or their classmates', or the rest of the village's opinion didn't matter. It felt like the spotlight that had shined down on Sasuke since his birth had finally turned off and the rest of the world just disappeared as they continued to exchange blows. It just didn't make since. That is it didn't make since until Sasuke looked into his opponent's eyes.

His eyes were filled with a respect and determination that shined throughout the battle. Sasuke could tell as soon as he looked into Naruto's eyes that Naruto wasn't fighting to gain the respect from everyone else from defeating an Uchiha. No Naruto was looking for respect from Sasuke and Sasuke alone. At that moment as Sasuke and Naruto fought in a battle that would ultimately end in a draw, the first non-win for the both of them, the two realized that within one another they had found a rival, and more than that they had each found a best friend.

It was nearing the end of the spring term, Naruto's first term in the academy, and while usually he would spend most of his time with Hinata she was sick this week so he decided to stay after school to spar with Sasuke, after which they worked on target practice. The sun had just begun to go down when the two boys realized how late it was.

"Wow it didn't even realize it was getting so late. I guess time flies huh Sasuke?"

"Kuso, Okaa-san is gonna kill me, and that's only if Otou-sama doesn't get to me first. I got to go Naruto, ja ne."

"Ja, Sasuke." Naruto responded as Sasuke sprinted out of the academy training field. 'Hm it looks like Sasuke forgot his shuriken. Oh well I'll just have to take them to him.' Naruto thinks a couple minutes after Sasuke leaves, looking around at the training field before gathering Sasuke's tools and taking off after Sasuke out of the training field.

What Naruto found when he caught up to Sasuke, was his friend standing frozen at the gates to his home. "Sasuke what's wrong? Why are you just standing here? Sasuke-" then Naruto looked to where Sasuke was staring only to see dozens of bodies lying slain in the streets. "I think we should go get the military police or the ANBU or something right Sasuke? Sasuke, hey Sasuke WAIT!" Naruto called out as Sasuke took off into the compound.

Naruto chased after him when Sasuke continued unheeded. "I have to know who did this and make sure my family is okay."

A look of determination set into Naruto's eyes, "Well I'm not going to let you run into this alone. I'm coming with you!"

Sasuke looked back at Naruto and when he saw Naruto's look a smile spread across his face and a similar look appeared in his eyes, "Whatever, do what you want."

The two sprinted through the compound charging into and through Sasuke's house once they reached it until they got to the room that Sasuke's parents stayed. They each took up a position on either side of the door and upon an unheard agreed upon signal Naruto opened and Sasuke lunged inside followed by Naruto. There they saw Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha lying in a pool of their own blood and a silhouette of a man hidden in the shadows behind them.

Out of the shadows walked. Itachi Uchiha his vest stained in blood as he stood over the deceased.

"Aniiki what happened? Everyone's dead who could've done such a thing? Why-"

"Sasuke look." Naruto interrupted him pointed to the blood stained blade in his hands.

"Itachi-nii-" Sasuke began but before he could continue he froze and his body stiffened.

"Sasuke what's going on?" As Naruto tried to shake Sasuke he fell to his knees, "What'd you do to him you bastard!"

"You are weak otouto. To become powerful you must hate me all with all your being and you must gain the same eyes as I have. Only then will you be able to kill me." Itachi said stoically speaking for the first time and completely ignoring Naruto.

"That's bullshit!" Naruto cried out.

"Why? Why did you do it Aniki? Why did you kill our family?"

"I killed them for power and to test my limits."

"You killed them to test your limits?" Sasuke questioned beginning to show a spark of rage.

"I don't believe that bullshit for one second!" as Sasuke charged Itachi and Naruto quickly followed Sasuke throwing a flying roundhouse kick at Itachi's face from Itachi's right side driving Naruto to throw a low sweep kick from his left. Itachi caught Sasuke's kick and widened his base to keep himself balanced against Naruto's. He then slid his left foot under the blond and flipped into the air before punting him out of the room through the paper thin walls and into the streets. He then tossed his brother to join the urchin.

"If you want to avenge our family hate me become strong through your hatred and then when your hatred is strong enough gain my eyes and hunt me down only then will you be able to beat me."

"That's a lie hatred is no way to becoming strong!" Naruto yelled back.

Itachi threw a kunai which embedded itself in the road between Naruto's feet scaring him silent, "Say what you wish brat, but there is no power in your actions."

Sasuke rose picking up the kunai and charging at Itachi with a sharingan in each eye, only one tomoe in each, "Don't you dare threaten my friend!" However once he got to Itachi he simply caught Sasuke's blade arm, lifted him off the ground, and punched him in the gut with enough force to knock him out cold. As Itachi dropped his otouto to the ground so too did a tear fall from his red and black Mangekyo Sharingan eyes. Once Sasuke hit the ground Itachi fled the scene not once looking back at Naruto, who then picked his friend up and rushed him to the hospital.

full week had passed since the Uchiha massacre and every day since Naruto would go straight to the hospital after school to visit his friend who continued to remain unconscious in his bed. Five out of the seven days he had fallen asleep in the visitor's chair that sat beside Sasuke's bed not waking up until the morning when it was time for the academy. The hospital staff had become so used to him from his occasional trips after accidents that they did not disturb him. It was one of these nights that the Uchiha had finally awaken, coming too at about 0200 hours to the site of his only true friend and rival snoring like a mother panda with his arms splayed over the back of the chair, slouched back, snoring, and with an odd book covering his eyes.

Finally he couldn't take the dull roar and snapped, "Oi! Dobe! Wakey wakey." As he leaned over the bed side and shoved a slobber covered finger into the blonde's ear, causing him to flail around wildly in surprise and fall to the side out of his chair. (sorry folks, but what'd you expect it was either that or have him yell 'wake your bright ass up' before kicking his chair until it tipped over backwards-which I may still use-but let's face it he's only 7) This elicited an outburst of laughter from the young raven and a cry of indignation from the blonde.

Once Naruto had returned to his seat he immediately started up a conversation, "Mornin' teme and welcome back to the land of the living!"

"Don't you mean goodnight it seems pretty late. Speaking of which why are you even here shouldn't you be home resting up for the academy tomorrow?"

"Nah, I get as much sleep here as I do at home anyway, besides I figured you would need someone to be here when you woke up seeing as…" the blonde soon adopted a somber face at the reminder of the deaths of so many, even if it was the Uchiha who had died. Besides they could not have all been bad.

His smile vanished before he began whispering, his head staring down at his sheets, "Oh… yeah that's right. I guess I had just hoped it had all been a dream." Suddenly he snapped his visage up, his hands gripping the sheets tightly, his facial features displaying as much malice as was possible for one so young before he declared, "I swear on the blood of my family I will kill him! I'll become stronger than he ever was, and I'll find him, and I'll kill him! I will avenge my family! I swear it!"

Naruto's features became soft before he responded, his voice uncharacteristically low as he looked at the book in his lap while doing so, "Sasuke what will that accomplish. It wouldn't bring any of them back. All you'd be doing is killing the only family you had left."

"That man is no family of mine! That bastard deserves nothing from me, but my hatred! You're the only brother I have left."

Naruto smiled at being called "brother" by Sasuke but continued in the same small tone, "He's the last blood link you have to your family vile or not," Naruto corrected himself, "besides if you give into your hatred if you try and hunt him down, then you'd be doing exactly the same thing that he did, following in his footsteps. Do you really want to give him that satisfaction?"

Sasuke finally settled down before responding, "No I guess I don't."

Naruto continued the conversation, "Besides don't you want the truth out of him?"

"Huh?"

"Well think about it his reasons just seem too fishy to be realistic especially with everything you've told me about him. Plus a murderer, a real murderer, wouldn't be crying about his actions."

"Crying?" Sasuke asked his friend incredulously.

"Yeah I guess you were already passed out when it happened though I'm surprised your red eyes didn't pick up on it. He turned his and a few drops of water fell from his eyes."

"Red eyes…you mean I activated my sharingan!"

"I guess. They were bright red and had a tomoe or comma thing or whatever they're called in each eye."

"Wow I wonder how I did it or how I can do it again."

Naruto shrugged and gave his honest opinion, "Well you could just try to make yourself feel whatever you felt just before you attacked him. Maybe that'll work."

Sasuke nodded before getting back to the conversation, "Yeah I'll try that later when I get back to training. But regardless even if Itachi felt some kind of remorse for his actions it doesn't bring back all of the people he killed."

Sasuke still seemed to be a little bit calmer at least so Naruto continued his fight, "Well neither will outright killing him, at least think about it before you go charging in to kill him without a thought the next time you see him alright?"

"Fine, I'll think about it dobe." Sasuke finally confirmed placating his friend before finally noticing the book that was in the blonde's lap, "Oi, dobe, I didn't know you could read what's with that book."

"Oh this, well it's a long story. You see I was bugging Jiji about my parents. I wanted to know something, anything, about them, but he wouldn't budge. Finally, I wore him down until he gave me this book. He told me someone very close to my parents, especially my dad, wrote this book. He said that my parents found it so fitting that they even named me after the main character in this book. My first thought was to look at the author's name, but Jiji told me that there's a special seal on it that keeps anyone who doesn't already know who wrote it from being able to read the author's name. There's apparently an autograph on the back cover too, but it's also sealed."

"Dang, why does Hokage-sama try so hard to keep information about your parents from you?"

"Don't know but I trust his judgment."

"Alright, fair enough, so what's it about?"

"It's called _The Tales of a Gutsy Ninja _and it's about an awesome ninja who finds his greatest strength when protecting others and his goal is to end all of the hatred that exists in the world. After reading it I've decided to make that my life's goal as well, believe it!" (Couldn't help myself it just felt perfect)

"Wow that sounds awesome! Can I read it?"

"Sure!"

Naruto was sitting in class his head leaning against his arms doing his absolute best not to fall asleep. Sasuke had just woken up this morning and they had stayed up for something like two hours before going the doctor came in and told them to go to sleep allowing Naruto to use one of the other beds in the hospital room, and he was still tired. What was worse was that with Sasuke still in the hospital for observation, Hinata out sick for another day according to the doctors, and Neji on a different schedule than him because of their differing years he had no one to hang out with at lunch again. Since Sasuke was awake then he couldn't occupy himself with worrying either. He was going to be so bored!

Speaking of lunch, "!", "Alright, class, remember we have taijutsu sparring after lunch so meet back here in the thirty minutes."

"Hai, Mizuki-Sensei!" the class chorused in response.

As Naruto walked out to the courtyard of the academy he looked around at his fellow students. Just about everyone was divided into a group sitting at a picnic table. However he noticed a single boy off to the side, sitting by himself under a tree reading a book and nibbling on his lunch. He was wearing sunglasses and a buttoned up trench coat, and he had an afro.

Naruto decided to go over and introduce himself. He walked over and began speaking exuberantly, "Oi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki! What's your name?"

Shino shifted only slightly in order to regard Naruto, before replying in a clipped tone, "I am Shino Aburame."

Not deterred by the lack of conversation Naruto plowed forward, "So what'u reading?"

Shino raised an eyebrow at the uncommon and unexpected interest before replying, "It is a basic book cataloguing the phyla of simple invertebrates. Unfortunately most of them are aquatic so they are nonexistent in central Hi no Kuni."

Not really understanding most of the information, but encouraged by the quantity, Naruto pressed for more, "So you're part of the Aburame clan right? The ones who use bugs in their ninjutsu?"

Shino rolled his eyes before responding in a clipped, "Hai," expecting revulsion now that his new companion knew the truth.

"That's so cool!" Naruto replied Shino flinched slightly as his eyes widened and his eyebrows rose at the exclamation, he had never received that kind of response about his bug, but before he could reply Naruto continued, "Has anyone ever thought about using them for espionage?"

Shino took on a thoughtful look analyzing the suggestion, "Oh, how so?"

"Well think about it, even if the bugs couldn't be understood or if they couldn't read or understand what is being said they could recognize the sensory information given and relay it somehow. Plus they can gain access to written information whether the book or scroll is open or not if they are small enough. Then if you have some sort of a jutsu to create a sort of hive mind effect between you and your bugs you could open up all sorts of opportunities and advancements! That would be so awesome!"

"Hai that would be an interesting idea I wonder if there are other applications to such techniques." Shino said as he set his book down and continued conversing with Naruto about potential for his jutsu. They spent the entire lunch period bouncing ideas off of each other.

It had been about an hour since the academy had dismissed for the day and Naruto was just wandering around the village. He was planning on visiting Sasuke later that evening, but for now he was looking for a distraction.

As he was passing an alley he noticed a large gathering of kids, some of whom he even noticed from his class. As he got closer he overheard an argument going on between two very vocal members of the group.

"There's no way we're going to take fatty on our team!" One of the team captains shouted out.

"Well, we already have five team members so if we add another one then it won't be fair because we'll outnumber y'all by two." The other captain countered clearer just trying to come up with an excuse.

"I guess you guys just don't have enough room to let me play with y'all. I'll just go play somewhere else." The larger boy that Naruto recognized from his class said with a subdued voice before turning around walking away looking very downtrodden.

As soon as the kid was out of sight and the two teams were just about to start playing their game, a taller lanky kid left the group. Before he did so he turned to them and said, "Well I guess I'll leave so y'all can keep the teams even." He left before anyone could respond.

After the lanky kid had left Naruto walked over to the group and commented, "That wasn't nice at all. Y'all could have at least let him play."

The first captain turned and yelled at Naruto, "What do you know about being nice anyway teme!"

"Apparently a lot more than you do." Naruto replied without missing a beat as he walked off in the direction of the shops. When he got to the market area he found a general sales shop. He walked in and quickly found a bag of barbeque chips which he always saw Chouji eating in class. As he was walking to the cashier he noticed a game hanging on a rack, 'Hm I this'll cheer him up! I wonder how much it is.' "Excuse me shop keeper-san how much for this game?"

"One hundred and seven ryo!" he shouted back to Naruto.

"Wow, that's a little steep for some stupid game." Naruto thought out loud as he approached the shop keeper with the game carried under his arm.

"The price is the price. Take it or leave it gaki. I ain't haggling today."

"Yeah, yeah I got your money teme. Damn, don't get your panties in a wad." 'Well I guess you can't really put a price on a potential friendship.' Naruto thought to himself.

"Well looks like you owe me two hundred ryo today, gaki." The shop keeper informed Naruto.

"Alright." 'Well looks like there goes my monthly allowance. I'm really starting to rethink that bit about putting a price on friendship.'

As Naruto wondered around Konoha he eventually found the large kid sitting on a bench on a rooftop with the lanky kid lying down on the tiles not very far away, staring at the sky.

"Oi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I saw you run off and thought you might like some company! Oh sorry I almost forgot to ask. What's your name?" Naruto introduced himself smiling at the larger kid.

The larger kid smiled and replied, "Hello, my name's Chouji Akimichi. Thanks for the thought, but I already have some company. You're welcome to join us if you'd like. Hey are those blast chips?"

"Yeah I've seen you eating them in class before so I thought you might like some."

"Boy would I!"

"Well, here you go." Naruto said tossing him the bag.

"Wow, thanks!" Chouji said before practically diving head first into the bag of chips.

Naruto watched with slight trepidation before continuing on with his peace offering, "I was also wondering if you'd like to try out a game with me? I found this in a shop and thought we could figure it out together. Oh I almost forgot I never got your friend's name."

"Shikamaru Nara." Shikamaru replied barely moving as he watched the clouds.

"You don't say much do you?" Naruto asked him resisting the urge to laugh out loud.

"Nope." Shikamaru replied simply.

"Why not?" Naruto asked raising an eyebrow.

"Too troublesome." Shikamaru responded rolling over away from the troublesome blond.

"Whatever…" Naruto thought out loud twitching before regaining his vigor as he turned back to Chouji, "So how about that game?"

"Sure." The Akimichi replied before opening the box and beginning to read the rules of the game with Naruto.

"Wow that was a tough game, but it sure was fun." Chouji sighs after an hour of playing shogi against Naruto.

"Yeah it was. I can't believe I was able to win. You sure had me on the ropes there a couple of times." Naruto said adding in his two cents.

"Yeah, but you easily out smarted me when I did. I knew you'd win. You're pretty smart." Chouji complimented, going back to his chips.

"Please, I doubt you'd say that if you caught a glimpse of my report card." Naruto humbly countered, laughing the compliment off.

"Oi, Naruto if you're up for it why don't, you try going up against me?" Shikamaru questioned neutrally. The other two boys' game had caught his attention about ten minutes into it, and he had observed since then.

"Gladly!" Naruto replied exuberantly, happy to have someone new willing to play a game with him with the two friends he usually hangs out with either sick or hurt.

Five minutes later Naruto watched frantically as Shikamaru's gold general cut off the only maneuver left available to his king after it had been herded into a trap by Shikamaru's rook and bishop, two consecutive turns prior, followed swiftly by Shikamaru using one of his captured knights to take Naruto's king.

"There's no way you could've won that quickly! You must have cheated!" Naruto accused gaping at the board.

"Hardly, you're just that easy to beat." Shikamaru countered smugly.

"Wow, Shikamaru you're really good." Chouji praised.

"Thanks." Shikamaru responded neutrally smiling at his friend.

"Whatever, it must have been a fluke! I'll just have to win next time." Naruto said stubbornly crossing his arms sulking before his stomach began growling. His utter demolishment at the hands of Shikamaru, forgotten he quickly turned to questions Chouji, "Oi, oi Chouji do you like ramen?" he asked excitedly.

"Wow, Shikamaru you're really good." Chouji praised.

"Thanks." Shikamaru responded neutrally smiling at his friend.

"Whatever, it must have been a fluke! I'll just have to win next time." Naruto said stubbornly crossing his arms sulking before his stomach began growling. His utter demolishment at the hands of Shikamaru, forgotten he quickly turned to questions Chouji, "Oi, oi Chouji do you like ramen?" he asked excitedly.

"Do I ever! It's one of my top 100 favorite foods right after miso soup and Kuma no Kuni curry!" Chouji ecstatically proclaimed a spark glinting in his eyes. Akimichis take their food very seriously.

"Well I know this great ramen bar called Ichirakus! Their ramen is to die for! I'll treat you both if you like! I still have a little extra left over from my monthly allowance.

"Sweet, sure count me in."

"Ahn if you're paying then I guess it can't be too troublesome."

"Well then let's go!" Shikamaru would soon be proven wrong, that it was in fact too troublesome.

Three hours, ten ramen bowls, and one more lost shogi game later Naruto is leaving Ichirakus with a full stomach and the knowledge that he had two new friends. He and Chouji had, had a ramen eating contest, Naruto having won by one bowl eating five compared to Chouji's four. Meanwhile, Shikamaru had eaten one bowl before being dragged into one more game of shogi. Naruto lasted ten seconds longer than before-Chouji clocked them with a stopwatch he borrowed from Teuchi. They had agreed to do it again sometime, thus leading to Naruto's grin.

As he was walking back home he noticed a commotion in the park, under a tree on the far side, and decided to go and in investigate.

"Wow, your forehead really is huge!"

"I bet you could fit the whole Hokage monument across it!"

"Forehead!", "Forehead!", "Forehead!"

"Ino-buta isn't around to baby you now."

When Naruto got through the park to the scene he found a girl his age huddled in the fetal position crying under a tree surrounded by four other girls, who were all pointing and laughing at her. The only thing he could tell about her was that she had pink hair and was wearing a red dress over a yellow shirt. The four girls were clearly, even to Naruto, picking on the girl.

This awoke the inner hero inside of him, that so often got Naruto in trouble, and he immediately got involved, "Hey what's going on here!" He exploded angrily.

"None of your business!" The lead girl said.

"It looks like your picking on her!" He growled.

"What if we are? It's not like it's any of your business!"

"Well then I'm making it my business!"

"Pfft, whatever let's go girls. This has gotten real boring anyway." She said walking away with the other three girls following behind her away from the other two people in the park.

"Are you alright?" Naruto asked the girl offering her his hand to help her up.

She took his hand with hers as she tried to wipe away her tears with her other hand, "Y-y-yes I'm better now thank you. I-I'm S-S-Sakura H-Haruno."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto replied introducing himself.

"Th-thank y-you for getting them to leave me alone. U-usually Ino-chan helps me with them, b-but she had to leave earlier to help h-her dad a-at her h-house." Sakura thanked him and explained the situation.

"Would you like me to walk you home to make sure they don't bother you anymore?" Naruto asked.

Sakura was a glow as she responded, "S-sure!" Naruto was like her own knight in shining armor.

The entire way to Sakura's she kept asking questions to the blonde beside her. What he did outside of the academy. Who his friends were. Who he looked up to. What kind of ninja he wanted to become.

She'd ask more and more and with each question she would get more starry-eyed. Naruto just kept walking along obliviously unaware of his traveling companions building attraction for him.

When they got to her apartment building Sakura looked up disappointedly, "Well this is where I live."

"Wow! It looks so clean!" Naruto exclaimed in wonder.

Sakura giggled before asking, "Isn't your apartment building clean too?" her confidence had skyrocketed in just the few short minutes that she had known Naruto, and his easy going, confident personality.

"Nah, the guy who owns it is a total cheapskate: the other tenants are trying to gather enough ryo to buy it from him, but he's got so much stashed away, he's practically loaded! It's not like it's my problem anyway, I got a placed to sleep and get out of the rain and it don't cost too much, so I don't get involved."

"Oh well I'm sure you have somewhere to be, so I guess I'll see you later." She said reluctantly.

"Sure, later!" Naruto replied over his shoulder as he turned around and started heading home.

The next morning Naruto was walking Hinata to the academy and telling her all about his crazy time in it while she was sick, beginning with the Itachi incident and leading up to his rescue of Sakura. When he got to the end she frowned which Naruto assumed meant that she didn't like him getting into so much trouble, which it did on one level.

"I guessed I've missed a lot in this past week in a half," She said disappointedly.

"Seems we both did hime. I missed a good deal in those few days apparently, as well." Sasuke said coming around the corner with his nose in the novel Naruto had given him in the hospital. He apparently had been able to hear most of the conversation from the other street over, because of Naruto's loud volume.

"Yep I got four new friends all in one day." Naruto cheered to himself.

"Sasuke and Hinata shared a look of curiosity before continuing to the academy, they wanted to meet these others for themselves.

When lunch time rolled around Naruto sat down at an empty table flanked by Sasuke and Hinata. Almost immediately Shino noticed his new companion and decided to join him as, Naruto had joined him the previous day. Chouji noticed the gathering as well and began dragging Shikamaru in that direction.

As they were being introduced to one another, a young blonde girl was approaching the group with one Sakura Haruno glued to her hand. She approached the group and immediately and exuberantly began introducing herself and her shadow, "OI! My name's Ino Yamanaka and this, is my friend Sakura Haruno!"

"Sakura-chan, what's up?" Naruto shouted. This level of familiarity led to Hinata frowning.

Sasuke leaned over and whispered conspiratorially to her, "Don't worry hime whether he knows it or not you're stuck with him like white on rice." This earned him a quirked eyebrow from the Hyuga heiress and a slight tinge of pink to her cheeks because of the implications of the word "on" in his expression. Sasuke simply turned back to the new girls before continuing to whisper, "Besides, I doubt you should worry, she looks kind of cute to me, kind of like what one would assume to be a young damsel in distress…for now."

Hinata rose her eyebrow a little further, a slight look of shock crossing her features as she responded to the Uchiha, "Oh really? I am shocked hearing that coming from the cold-hearted Uchiha."

"You wound me hime." Sasuke countered a mock look of pain crossing his face, before they turned back to Naruto's conversation with Ino.

Ino had just bowed to Naruto, "Thank you for helping my friend, yesterday. She has a problem with people bullying her. Unfortunately, I can't be around to protect her all of the time. We are thankful for your assistance, we owe you."

Naruto frowned at the formality, "No, no it was no problem at all. You don't owe me anything. Please sit, join us for lunch. There's plenty of room."

"Sure!" Sakura replied answering for the both of them, before realizing her outburst, blushing and backing up to try and disappear behind Ino, who happened to be stunned by said outburst.

Ino quickly moved to remedy the situation, "Oh, thank you for your generosity, and kindness, but we would not want to intrude."

"It's no trouble at all," Naruto countered turning to the others, "right guys?" He said putting it up to a vote.

"It does not affect me. They may do as they please." Shino said before continuing to nibble on his lunch.

"Ino's, Shikamaru's, and my dad are all good friends so I wouldn't mind if they joined." Chouji replied nudging his friend, "What about you Shikamaru?"

"Troublesome…Whatever. Do what you want." He sighed before going back to his cloud watching.

"How about you Sasuke?" Naruto Asked.

"I'm fine with it." Sasuke replied seemingly uninterested.

"Hinata?" Naruto pleaded, busting out the puppy dog eyes.

"Well…" She looked around at the faces of the others, and after the pleading look Naruto was giving her and the mock pleading look Sasuke was giving her she finally gave in, "Alright, alright, the more the merrier I guess."

Ino and Sakura sat down, with that acknowledgement, at the table on the opposite side of Naruto, next to Shino. As soon as they sat down, they began speaking to Hinata, to her utter shock.

On the other side of the courtyard a young boy sat on his haunches with a puppy sitting on his head and two other boys sitting on either side of him as they all brooded over something or another, "That Uzumaki! He thinks he's so great! Thinks he's worthy of being Alpha of our class? Ha! Over my dead body! I will be Alpha! I will be the one that our class looks to for leadership!"

"Yea boss!" One of the other boys agreed.

"You'll show him!" The other one said.

"You know that's not a bad idea. Let's go boys!" The leader said getting up and walking to Naruto and his friends with the other two following behind him.

As the girls were getting better acquainted and talking, and Shino was having a highly intelligent conversation with Shikamaru while Chouji listened in, on them, Naruto was watching his friends old and new with a pleased eye at how they were all getting along. Sasuke was watching as well, but he was more focused on keeping a lookout for any person who had plans of approaching his friends with hostile intent, so he could protect them. As he was keeping an eye out, he noticed the boy and his group coming their way with a scowl on his face. He reached over and tapped Naruto on the shoulder and informed him, "Here comes the mutt and his pack of troublemakers at eleven o'clock."

"I here ya Sasuke, but let's see what they want first before you start something." He whispered back.

"Who ever said I was talking about me starting anything?" whispered mock offense shining on his face.

"Because we out number them almost three-to-one. It wouldn't be intelligent for them to start anything." Naruto deadpanned an unusual occurrence in and of itself.

"The mutt isn't exactly known for his intelligence." Sasuke countered just as straight faced.

"True." Naruto responded sweat dropping.

As they finished talking Kiba arrived at their table. Hinata quickly acknowledged him in an exasperated tone, "What do you want Kiba?"

"I challenge you to a sparring match Uzumaki!" Kiba replied.

"Why do you want to fight me Kiba?" Naruto inquired calmly, another rarity.

"Because you're too full of yourself! I'm challenging you for leadership of our class!" he responded loudly.

"Hmm, I don't really think I'm leading anything, but whatever you say. When do you plan on having this match?"

"Tomorrow, after school at the training ground fully surrounded by trees with the wooden post in the exact middle of the field." Kiba barked.

"Very well, I will see you then Kiba." Naruto confirmed prompting Kiba to do an about face and lead his cronies back to their table where continued to eat their lunch and speak amongst themselves.

Naruto leaned over to Sasuke and whispered to him, as the others got back to their own conversations, "I should probably get some training in this afternoon to prepare for this match."

"Yeah, you know that's not a bad idea!" Sasuke replied.

"I'm going to ignore your sarcasm. I need to ask a favor of you."

"Need a sparring partner or something?"

"No, actually, I was just planning on throwing myself through the ringer on a training tangent for that. I have another favor to ask of you." Naruto responded.

"Oh, and what might that favor be, if not a request to help in training?" Sasuke asked now completely intrigued by this left field request.

"Neji can take Hinata home so I'm not worried, as much, about her."

"Yes go on."

"But unfortunately, Sakura has a bullying problem."

"Oh, really, no, I didn't hear Ino say as much when they came over here."

"Man you're really becoming obsessed with this sarcasm thing. Regardless, I was wondering if you could tail her and make sure she gets home safely."

Sasuke watched Sakura for a few seconds first, before answering, "You know I don't think I'd mind too much."

After school Naruto went to the training ground that Kiba had suggested for their spar. When he arrived he found a kid wearing a white gi with black hair that spiked out in all directions. The kid was vigorously punching the wooden post, however, when he heard Naruto behind him, he turned around to see who it was.

"Hello! I am Lee Rock! Who might you be?"

"Oi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Nice to meet you!"

"The pleasure is mine!" Lee responded as he bowed to Naruto, "What brings you out this way my friend!"

"Someone in my class challenged me to a spar tomorrow afternoon so I came out this way to train and prepare, for the match." Naruto answered.

Lee suddenly looked downcast, "Well, then I will leave you to your training Naruto-san"

As Lee was about to leave Naruto called out stopping him, "First, of all there is no reason for such formality amongst friends Lee. Just call me Naruto. Secondly, why don't you stay and train with me? I could use a training partner." The only reason he had told Sasuke otherwise just because he wanted Sakura to get home safe.

"Why would you want to train with me? I'm the last of my class. I can't mold chakra properly so I can't use ninjutsu or genjutstu. It is unlikely that I will ever be able to become a great shinobi." Lee explained looking down in dejection. He did not hear a response from Naruto so he began to look up at his new friend. Before he could look up, however, a fist slammed right into his cheek knocking him back on his back onto his butt. He looked up and stammered in shock, "Wha-wh…"

"Never, don't you ever think so pitifully about yourself! It doesn't matter what you can or can't do! It doesn't matter what kind of handicaps you have! You will become as grand a shinobi as you desire to be! Even if that means you have to master a skill you are weak in like taijutsu, you can become one of the greatest shinobi in the world! Never forget that!" Naruto's face was shadowed by his hair as he growled out those statements. Suddenly, he shifted his face to look dead at Lee with a genuine smile on his face, "So my friend how about some training!"

Lee had been moved to tears and was shocked beyond words by both Naruto's reaction to his little pity party, and at first he expected to have lost his new friend, however, with Naruto's question a kind of switch flipped inside of his head as he clenched his fists and a fire ignited in his eyes as he looked up at Naruto, "Yosh, let us begin! We will train until we have surpassed the entire world!"

"That's the spirit Lee!" Naruto shouted back ecstatically as he charged the other boy to begin their sparring session.

Meanwhile on the other side of the village Sakura Haruno was walking home alone. She would have been walking with Ino, but unfortunately, she was once again called home early to take part in chores at her family's flower shop. As she was walking she was ambushed by the same group of girls from the previous day.

"Well, well, if it isn't forehead girl, and no troublesome blondes in sight." The leader of the girls spoke up; however, just before they could approach Sakura and continue their jeering they all heard a familiar voice coming from behind Sakura.

"Excuse me is something going on here."

"Uhm, uh, no Uchiha-san there is no problem here. We were just trying to put forehead-chan here in her place, is all. No reason for you to worry yourself." The leader of the group said with reluctant smile hoping to dissuade Sasuke from acting against them.

"Leave her to me. You girls should just move along." He replied

"Yes Uchiha-san; whatever you say." She said nervously as she lead her group of girls past them.

Once they were gone Sasuke turned to Sakura and checked on her, "Are you alright?"

"What are you doing here! Were you stalking me!" Sakura yelled at him irately.

Sasuke looked taken aback and just a little shocked, 'this isn't the shy little girl that Naruto described,' "Well sorry, I heard that you had a bully problem and I was concerned about you so I decided to follow you to make sure you didn't have any trouble, Naruto thought it was a good idea too."

"Well if you're expecting a thank you then don't hold your breath," Sakura huffed in response as she crossed her arms and turned away from him.

"I wouldn't even dream of it seeing as I just helped you out and all," Sasuke affirmed, stubbornly.

"Fine!"

"Fine!" that yelled at each other one after the other.

"Well are you going to leave now?" Sakura questioned agitatedly.

"Not until I know you're home safely."

"I don't need a babysitter!"

"I don't care!"

"Just leave me alone!"

"Not until your safety is assured!"

"Why do you even care!"

"How should I know!"

"You're just so…OUH!" she barked in exasperation before turning and walking in the direction she was previously traveling. Sasuke soon followed her quietly.

Naruto and Lee had been sparring for a couple of hours non stop and were finally taking a break to catch their breath. Naruto looked over to Lee and began questioning about his other friends and Lee suddenly got a little quiet, "Well because of my position within the class I'm not a very popular kid. But it is not like you have to have people who like you to want to protect them." Lee quickly elaborated explaining his tolerance with his current situation.

"Wow, that's a real selfless way of thinking about things." Naruto complimented before he was struck by an idea, "Hey why don't you hang out with me and my friends! There's always more room and the more the merrier, right?"

"Thank you, for the offer, but would it not seem weird for someone a year older to hang with kids a year younger than them?" Lee questioned.

"Who cares what other people think? If you're comfortable hanging with people a year younger than you that should be your decision and the rest of the academy can just go and suck it up!" Naruto callously countered until he saw that the look on Lee's face hadn't changed one way or the other so he began trying another angle, "If it makes you feel any better I'm decent friends with Neji Hyuga, because I'm real good friends of his younger cousin, and I've been trying to find a reason to convince him to come sit with us. I'm sure if you are already planning on joining us for lunch we can find some moral obligation to convince him to join us as well, and between the two of you I'm sure you can convince someone else to join in too! So what do ya say, wanna eat with us tomorrow?" He asked after he had made his point.

"Hm…" Lee hummed contemplatively…

As Sasuke walked Sakura home, she eventually became fed up with the silence so she decided to break it, "So why were those girls so obedient to what you demanded? What are you royalty or something?"

Sasuke looked at her oddly, before he decided to comment in return, "You must not be from around here."

"I'm not, so what. What does that have to do with anything?" She demanded.

"I'm from the Uchiha clan, actually I'm the last of the Uchiha clan, for now, who is loyal still to Konoha."

"So what? What's the big deal? I've heard of them before but what do they have to do with anything?" Sakura was adamantly defiant in her ignorance.

"*Huff*, the Uchiha clan was one of the two founding clans of Konoha, in fact the only one that was actually still involved with Konoha. They were also seen as one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, of the clans in the village. So many see me as the one to bring that power back into the village." Sasuke responded.

"So they expect you to reproduce to the point of rebuilding your entire clan?"

"*Huff*, yes." He replied irritated at the repetitiveness of the question.

"So they essentially expect you to be a man whore."

"Exactly…hey!" he shouted in indignation.

Sakura burst out laughing at Sasuke's expense. He could not exactly say he did not like her laugh so he was no further inclined to interrupt it, but he did resort to fuming while she got herself under control. "Sorry, sorry, I couldn't resist the jab at you. It's just so fun to pick on elitist jerks."

"Ooh, elitist, quite a large vocabulary for someone our age."

"Would you like me to dumb it down for you genius?" she asked sarcastically.

"Sakura-chan you wound me." He countered with mock hurt.

"I'm sure I'll find some way to live through your pain." She replied dryly as they continued walking.

"Good I wouldn't want to inconvenience you." Sasuke said finishing their verbal sparring as they continued walking breaking down into giggles after taking a few steps. Then he began to launch an inquisition of his own, "So why are those girls picking on you and no one helping you? Your forehead doesn't look that big to me and even so I'd expect someone to at least try and help you out."

Sakura frowned before answering, "Well it's kinda a long story."

"Well I'm sure we've got a little time to kill," Sasuke cut in earning a glare from Sakura before she continued.

"Well my parents are traveling merchants, the only reason why we've lived in Konoha for longer than a month or two is because I decided I wanted to become a ninja and signed up for the academy. My parents were extremely displeased with my decision and as soon as I become a genin and can take care of myself the plan on returning to their travels leaving me here alone."

"And I thought I had it bad when my folks were alive. That sounds rough. Nobody does anything about them? There has to be some sort of law that gets in their way."

"Hardly, it's not like they're bad parents they're just set in their ways. They don't have anything against me, I'm just keeping them from the life they know, so they plan on getting back to it as soon as they can. Besides even if they were bad parents it's not like anyone would know. No one wants to know what goes on the Haruno household."

"Why is that?"

"Well it's because of where we come from. You see while my family is one of travelers they weren't always that way and even as merchants that still had a focal village where they primarily sold their goods. Before they became merchants my grandparents were shinobi for a short time in Kumogakure no Sato and even when we became merchants we still did a lot of business with Kumo, not Kaminari no Kuni as whole mostly Kumo specifically."

"Yikes no wonder y'all get the cold shoulder."

"Yeah I mean even when Sandaime Raikage-sama backed us out of our alliance with Iwagakure during the last couple of years of the last shinobi war, the fact that he used the Kumo shinobi turned into mercenaries against both sides didn't exactly help Kumo's image, if anything it made it worse if you could believe it. And after the Hyuga incident four years ago and the fact that his son Killer A, who took over with the help of his brother and his brother-in-laws sister-the two jinchuuriki of the village-a year after that incident, instead of making alliances to make Kaminari natives look better under their new leader, he goes and strengthens Kumo's neutrality to the point where it is trying to rival Ame, so now we look secretive too. With that kind of reputation my whole family is practically scorned, which is another reason why my parents are upset with me because I decided to become a ninja here where we are looked down upon rather than going back to Kumo to train."

"Wow, that's harsh and I thought I had it bad." In truth he still did think he had it worse, but that would have sounded insensitive and possibly upset her, besides this conversation was about her not him, although he could not help but wonder since when had he started caring about another's feelings especially this peasants. They continued to walk in silence for a short distance before Sasuke decided to ask her about what he thought was one of her most peculiar traits, "If you don't mind my asking what's up with your crazy mood swings? I mean you seemed really shy and reserved earlier, but ever since we left those girls back there you've become far more…bold?"

Sakura had turned her head away from Sasuke trying to ignore the strange tingle she had started feeling while she was talking to Sasuke until she heard his question bringing her to jerk her head back in his direction inquisitively, before she answered him, "Well like I said my family used to be shinobi in Kumo, and while there were no written records of us as a clan my dad has built up a theory over the years from both personal experience and from what he learned from his parents and grandparents. According to him every Haruno is born with a bloodline, that goes nearly unnoticed compared to other bloodlines so it often mixing with both being accessible, that he calls double mind. In other words Harunos are born with kind of like two brains that fuse in a way that keeps the use of two but the appearance of one. This gives us near eidetic memories, and analytical skills approaching that of most Nara. This makes us great at handling money and keeping historical details which is drove us into our merchant business.

"However, as shinobi it's even more beneficial. We learn grow and gain experience mentally at least twice as fast as other ninja. Our eidetic memories are great for intelligence missions as we retain any gathered info a lot more easily. Plus our enhanced mental abilities allow us to control chakra nearly as efficiently as a Hyuga, and also let us learn techniques in a fraction of the time. Unfortunately, most of our clan would become so full of knowledge they believed themselves invincible without worrying at all about building themselves up physically. This was a big problem, though not the only one at all. The biggest problem probably came in the fact that the double mind gave us a case of multi-personality disorder, all of us. This was both good and bad. Good because when we were alone we always had someone to talk to and they made battle management a whole lot easier, because as the saying goes two heads are better than one. Besides that they always offered a means to escape mental techniques like genjutsu and the Yamanaka's techniques which is helpful. However at the same time they could become distracting at times and sometimes would even send Harunos off the deep end driving them crazy." She answered him explaining her family to him.

"So you're more aggressive around me, because you're crazy?" Sasuke asked skeptically.

This summary caused Sakura to giggle as she responded, "I guess so." But internally she had to think, 'why am I telling him all of this. I barely even know or like him' though she felt another tingle in her chest and heard a faint whisper in the back of her mind saying something about denial, though it was too faint to take notice of. Of course even if she did feel anything she would not tell Sasuke that so she stuck to responding by saying, "I guess you just bring that side out of me Sasuke-kun."

Of course this just drove Sasuke to turn his head away as quick as possible to hide the slight heating of his face. It was lucky that he did because as soon as started looking in that direction he noticed a cart headed straight for them, "Lookout!" he called as he threw himself at Sakura moving them both out of the way of the cart just in time. "What was that all about?" He wondered out loud.

"No clue." She responded before looking up, "Oh my God! That's where I live!" smoke was rising in the distance originating from their ultimate destination.

Sasuke picked himself off of Sakura and gave her his hand to help her up, "We'd better hurry. Let's go!" he said as they took off running in the direction of the smoke.

They arrived to find a scene where dozens of shinobi were either trying to use suiton techniques to calm the fire or climbing into the building themselves, so that they could rescue any survivors trapped inside. Sealing scrolls were strewn about the ground with the seals that had contained the water on them.

Sasuke and Sakura immediately approached a jonin who wore a mask to cover the lower half of his face and who was shouting orders to the chunin and other jonin who were acting to manage the fire and evacuate the survivors. In between two of his orders Sasuke grabbed his, "Excuse me Jonin-san me and my friend here are looking for her parents. Do you know if they've made it out of the building or not?"

"Well if anyone here would know young Uchiha it'd be me. If you could describe them for me I will be happy to lead you to them." The jonin replied.

Sakura gave him a quick description of a well built male in his early thirties with pink hair and brown eyes, and a lean female within two years of age of the male with blond hair and emerald eyes. Before the jonin could give her an affirmative or a negative response a chunin called out to him, "Kakashi-senpai, we have a situation!"

"I'm coming," Kakashi replied, "Don't worry kids I'm sure they will be fine." He said quickly before leaving to attend the situation, not having actually answering the question.

As soon as he had gotten out of range to hear without listening a man walked up to the two children and began speaking, "I know the people who you spoke of. They have yet to be found. In fact they are locked on the third floor at this very moment, and with the way the fire is spreading I doubt they'll be found in time." The man said with a malicious sneer.

Sakura gasped in horror at the man's revelation. Sasuke on the other hand was only listening enough to hear the man's additional information as he was paying attention to the two ninja as they conversed, "Kakashi-senpai, the fire is spreading fast. At the rate it's moving it will hit the gas tank on the top floor in minutes. The others will follow quickly. By the end of the hour the building will collapse from the recurring explosions. I don't want to lose anybody in there, but it would be best reduce the casualties and pull our men out of there. Cut our losses and quit while we are ahead."

Kakashi looked at the chunin contemplatively before heaving a sigh, "You're right but we will do this gradually. I want everyone out of the top floor now. Have the fourth floor evacuated within the next eight minutes, the third one eight minutes following the fourth and so on and so on. I want the center of each floor evacuated in half that time."

After Kakashi finished dishing out his instructions Sasuke realized that Sakura was pleading with him about something, "We have to save my parents Sasuke! We have to! We have t-" but before she could make her final plea the top floor of the building exploded sending shrapnel everywhere.

No one was near the two children and a piece of shrapnel was flying straight towards them so Sasuke did a quick six hand signs and performed the only jutsu he knew, "**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" **he cried out launching a fireball from his mouth that incinerated the stray boards. He turned to look at Sakura at asked her sharply, "What apartment number do you live in?"

She quickly replied, "315!" as Sasuke took off for the apartment building. As he passed a chunin on his way he shifted his Sharingan on for a split second, like he had been practicing since Naruto told him he had it, and used it to strip the chunin of his hip pouch without his notice as he continued forward deactivating his sharingan as he entered the apartment ignoring the cries of the shinobi trying to warn him away from it. In his rush he didn't notice Kakashi slip a scroll in his pocket, just in case.

As Sasuke entered the building he immediately headed in the direction of the stairwell that would lead him, obviously, upstairs. He had to avoid many fires all over the place, on the ground, the walls, the ceiling. Ducking and juking away from the falling debris and the flames themselves, and many times he would have to hit the ground for spurts of time so that he could get any decent air into his lungs. When he got to the stairwell he looked up it and noticed that there were chunks actually missing from some of the stairs and fires were all along them. What was left was clearly far from stable. He found a length of wall opposite to the corridors that had completely been stripped of stair casing, either by the fire or by the ninja that came before him to get a clear path to the top he could not tell. He checked in the pouch that he had snatched from the chunin to see what tools he had available, 'Let's see six kunai, seven shuriken, two exploding tag, three flash bangs, and 2 25 meter spools of ninja wire. Wow this guys didn't have much, anyway how much of this can actually be helpful? Hm, maybe…' he took out the spool of wire and tied it to a kunai. He then chucked it to an area level with the ceiling of the doorway leading to the third floor, using a quick glimpse with his sharingan to keep everything right. He then wrapped the spool around his torso before wrapping it around his hand before cutting it and tying it off. He put the wire away and checked to make sure that it was secure then he began to scale the wall.

Once he got to the kunai he'd thrown he grabbed a hold of it and used it as leverage launch himself in the hallway of the third floor. He began doing mental calculations, 'let's see it took me two minutes to find the shaft and three minutes to scale the stair case. That gives me eleven minutes until Kakashi-san believes the third floor will collapse.' He began charging through the hall, but do to the proximity to the initial fire debris and smoke was an even more common obstacle than on the first floor. It took him twice the amount of time as his search for the staircase, before he found a door held shut by a chair jammed against the knob. He looked up at the number by the door and sure enough it was room 315.

With that information he kicked the chair with all his might, and, seeing as it had suffered some deterioration from the fire, and shattered to pieces. He then took a couple of steps back and launched another small **Gokakyu**__to destroy the door before rushing inside.

When he arrived inside he found two forms collapsed next to each other a meter or two away from the door. After a cursory examination to identify them as Sakura's parents and a similar examination checking their pulse to make sure they were still alive, he dropped himself low to remain out of the smoke before taking stock of the situation. 'Alright according to Kakashi from the time that I left I had 16 minutes before all of the shinobi on this level were to be evacuated so that should be my goal. Get out of here by the 16 minute mark. Hmph, ninja on this level, there's not a soul here except for me and these two, but whatever. I've gotta get us out of here, but how? It's been nine minutes since I left which leaves me with seven. How am I going to get all three of us down there? I don't even know how I'm going to get down there.'

Sasuke began panicking before realizing what he was doing and slapping himself, 'Get a hold of yourself Sasuke you are an Uchiha, and Uchihas don't panic. Think how did you get up here?' He started digging in his stolen ninja pouch before he pulled out the two spools of ninja wire, one of which was down to a little more than half and the other which had yet to be used. 'Aright so I rappelled up here so maybe I can…zip-line! I can zip us down. Alright so I've got roughly thirty-eight and a half meters of ninja wire, if I use four meters to tie us to the line that'll leave me with thirty-four and a half for the zip and we would each be roughly a meter from the line. I don't know where that'll put us, but it should be far enough away from the building…I hope.'

Sasuke immediately got to work wrapping the wire around himself and Sakura's parents tying the other end off to separate shuriken from the seven in the pouch before putting the other four away. He then used the _**Goukakyu**_ one last time, this time making the largest one that he could, so that he could blow out the wall giving him a clear shot to a target on the ground below. Once it was clear he took the last of the first spool and tied one end to his second kunai and tying the other end to the beginning of the second spool, before he chucked it into the wall behind him. Once he was sure it was secure he ran the wire in the second spool, once he got it unwrapped, through his shuriken, then through Sakura's dad's shuriken, and finally through her mom's shuriken before tying it off to one last shuriken. He realized, in passing, that this had taken him practically five minutes only leaving him two, before he ignored that thought and once again activated his Sharingan briefly using it to guide his aim as he launched that last shuriken into a tree about thirty-two meters away from the building.

He then yelled out of the whole to alert the shinobi down below, after he had shut off his Sharingan again, "Kakashi-san lookout I'm about to zip down some civilians to you! I need you to get them to the ground safely!"

"Hai, Sasuke-san I'll take care of it personally, don't worry!" Kakashi responded preparing himself.

"Alright here they come!" Sasuke shouted back as he, as carefully as possible for a seven and a half year old, pushed Sakura's mother out of the whole in the wall.

He watched as Kakashi jumped up, grabbed on the zip, clipped the line attaching the woman to the shuriken with a kunai, before diving down and catching her bridal style before she could hit the ground. "Alright, I've got her," he called back up to Sasuke, "send the next one!" Sasuke did Kakashi did the same for Sakura's dad as he had done for her mom.

"That's all of them!" Sasuke called.

"Okay now it's your turn! Don't worry I'll catch you!" Kakashi called back, and Sasuke did as he was told. Unfortunately, something went wrong. Either someone's calculations about the building's structural integrity were off, or Sasuke had been in the building longer than he thought because as he jumped from the building holding on to the connection line for dear life he got half-way down the zip-line before the building's third floor began collapsing. As the floor collapse the his kunai that had formed the back end of the line was dislodged turning his zip-line into a disproportionate swing in that the ground was too close for his current angle of trajectory so he was going to hit it hard.

He shut his eyes in preparation for the splat that he knew would come. Strangely enough it never did. He opened his eyes to find himself on the ground in the arms of the jonin, "I told you I would catch you." Kakashi said to Sasuke's confused look before putting him down and nudging him in the direction of the Harunos where a bunch of ninja in white uniforms were gathering before telling him, "Go get the medics to make sure you're all right. You did could work today kid, you should be proud of yourself. I know I am."

Sasuke walked over to the medics surrounding the Harunos. When he arrived he inquired, "How are they doing?"

As soon as he opened his mouth Sakura attached herself to her sobbing into his shirt, "Thank you so much Sasuke! You saved them! And thank Kami you're still alive! I was so worried that you wouldn't get there on time or that you wouldn't make it out alive! Especially when the line snapped! It scared me half to death!" She started blubbering.

She continued to do so until the medics pulled her off of him so they could take a look at Sasuke and he got a word in, "shh, calm down Sakura. It's okay. Everything's going to be okay." He tried to sooth her. It worked a little as she managed to calm down just enough to stop crying and wait patiently while the medics declared Sasuke okay and her parents woke up.

Her mother was the first to do so coming out of a slight daze, "Huh, where am I? What happened?"

As the medics tried to coerce her into rest, Sasuke had other plans and a conspiracy to get uncovered, "Excuse me miss can you tell me what the last thing you remember was?"

The medics glared at him, but the woman complied regardless, "The last thing I recall was doing some house chores after my husband came home. He was doing some financials while I was dusting a bookcase when everything got extremely hot and smoke began filtering into the room. We tried to leave the room but the door was jammed and the knob would not turn. The next thing I know I am waking up down here. I must have passed out from the smoke."

"Thank you." Sasuke replied curtly, before he turned and began walking towards Kakashi as he watched the building collapse. By the time the medics had gotten through with Sasuke everyone had safely evacuated from the building and while they had nearly saved the bottom two floors they had eventually collapsed under the weight of the other three floors. The ninja had divided into groups discussing what had happened.

Sasuke approached Kakashi and got his attention, "Excuse me, Kakashi-san may I have a word?"

Kakashi turned the Uchiha slightly surprised but complied, "Certainly, what is it that you need Uchiha-san." It seemed Kakashi had returned to a more formal title for Sasuke.

"Based on your conversation with the chunin prior to my entry into the building, I am under the assumption that you had ordered shinobi to monitor every level of the building. Am I correct?"

"Yes, those were my orders. Why do you ask?"

"Because there wasn't a soul on that floor. In fact when I got the Haruno's room it was jammed shut with a chair holding the knob in place."

"What? Excuse me, Mizuki!" Kakashi called out.

"Hai, taicho?"

"I ordered you to make sure that the shinobi were equally distributed on each floor. So tell me why was it that I have just found out that the third floor was void of relief shinobi?"

"Sir, I was informed by one of the civilians that the third floor had been evacuated prior to our arrival, so I felt that it would be more prudent to redistribute those shinobi in the other areas so more lives could be saved."

"Then why is it that there were two civilians who would have died up there had it not been for a concerned academy student? Did you not check the claims of the citizen?"

"No sir, I know the man personally. I didn't think that he would lie to me. I-"

"That's enough! Return to your post! I will discuss this with Hokage-sama!"

"Hai taicho."

Once Mizuki had left Kakashi turned back to Sasuke, "It seems that this wasn't an accident. The Harunos may have even been specifically targeted."

"That's what I was afraid of. I suspect you'll be having someone look into this?"

"No, I will look into this personally."

"Very well, I will leave you to your duties. Sayonara."

"Sayonara."

Once Kakashi turned away, Sasuke returned to the Harunos to find that Sakura's father had awakened as well. "It's good to see you are doing well. I've talked to Kakashi-san the man in charge of the situation. He plans on investigating this situation personally."

"Is the situation that serious?" Her mother inquired.

"We believe this action was committed on purpose, potentially with y'all as specific targets." Sasuke informed them gravely eliciting a gasp from all three of them.

"Hold on don't you mean that's what you think? You weren't even officially apart of the fire control team so you can't really lump them in with you." Sakura accused, though apart of her agreed with his paranoia.

"No Kakashi agrees with me that it was unlikely to be an accident." Sasuke countered. Once he'd cleared that up Sasuke bid them farewell, "Well I suppose I'll see you at school Sakura. I'd offer y'all a place to stay, but I doubt you'd want to stay in a bed that had only recently been vacated because of a murderer."

"Thank you, for the offer Uchiha-san." said.

"Thank you, for everything Sasuke. I'll see you tomorrow." Sakura said as she kissed him on the cheek before turning back to her parents. Sasuke turned and walked away with a blush on his face. He rubbed his cheek as he walked away, thinking, 'She may be a merchant's daughter now but one day I'll make her a princess.'

Little did Sasuke know, Sakura watched over her shoulder as Sasuke walked away thinking, 'Who needs a knight in shining armor when I have my own dark knight.'

Of course neither of them noticed that another person was watching both of them, his right eye crinkled into his signature eye smile, 'ah young love such a beautiful thing. If only Jiraiya-sama were here, I'm sure he could make a great story out of this, it's plot gold.' Kakashi thought to himself as he pulled out his little orange book.

The next day during lunch time found three new additions to Naruto's little lunch time gathering. Lee had taken Naruto's offer and dragged Neji along with him. Neji did not go quietly, however, and he dragged Tenten, a fellow classmate of theirs and a good friend of Neji's, along with him. Of course that wasn't the only surprise for Naruto that lunch day, he also noticed Sasuke and Sakura talking together whenever he wasn't talking to Sasuke or whenever Sakura wasn't talking to Ino or Hinata.

Naruto thought about this until suddenly a conversation between Tenten, Shino, and Shikamaru caught his attention, "Seals can too turn the tide of a battle! Look at the Yondaime-sama. He was a master of fuin jutsu and it was that very mastery that made him a force to be reckoned with on the battle field, with his **Hiraishin** **no jutsu**. It also is what made him able to go toe to toe with the Kyubi because it was a seal that he used to create his time-space barrier. I bet he even beat the Kyubi with a seal." While whenever, someone made a mention of the Yondaime they certainly have his undivided attention, it was actually the mention of seals that had attracted him to the conversation and the Kyubi for some reason kept Naruto even more absorbed in it.

"While I admit the Yondaime was a powerful shinobi, I believe it was that fact that allowed him such capabilities with fuin jutsu not the other way around." Shino responded.

"Besides, I think without his **Rasengan** or his speed, he really wouldn't have been as dangerous." Shikamaru added.

"You're wrong Shikamaru, his seals were a massive part of his victories. Fuin jutsu is an extremely obscure art, and it's believed to be equally difficult. To see such being used on the battlefield gave him a major advantage psychologically. Plus the basis for most fuin jutsu relies on space-time ninjutsu, an art which is equally obscure and difficult, not to mention powerful, as fuin jutsu. To use seals to bend reality at his will like they have been known to do, would make him remarkably dangerous even without his other techniques." Naruto said in a kind of trance like state.

"And how would you know all of that," Shino curiously questioned about the blonde's well developed argument.

"I have no idea. It all just came to me. You know?" Naruto responded loudly and stupidly.

"No I do not know." Shino replied turning away dejectedly at the now illogical route the argument had taken.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed before going back to his lunch.

Tenten just began contemplating Naruto's comment and what she knew about him as a whole, while Naruto just continued grinning like an idiot as he looked back at all of his friends.

As Naruto and his friends were walking out of academy they were ambushed by Kiba and his gang, "Didn't forget about our little match did you?" Kiba asked Naruto.

"Of course I didn't!" Naruto retaliated, though in reality it had completely slipped his mind…and every one of his friends realized this by his defensive tone and immediately sweatdropped.

"Alright then I just thought we might escort you to your defeat. You know to make sure you don't get lost, or chicken out." Kiba said trying to attack Naruto any way possible by using that verbal jab.

Before he could respond Sasuke did it forward, "While the dobe is too stupid to chicken out of anything he does have a terrible sense of direction, but your services are unnecessary, that's one of the reason why he has us." This just left a confused look on Naruto's face as he was not sure whether he should be pissed at Sasuke for calling him stupid and saying he had no sense of direction or surprised by Sasuke calling him brave in a roundabout way. He just settled on shrugging and acting as if nothing had happened.

"Boys boys you're both pretty can we just get this over with now?" Hinata asked in agitation.

The large group arrived at the training ground, and Kiba and Naruto took their places on opposite ends of it while their friends stood off to the side. One of Kiba's gang approached the middle ground between the two kids and began explaining the rules, "This will be a one on one battle between Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka! Taijutsu only; genjutsu, ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, kenjutsu, or any other kind of jutsu are strictly prohibited! If a technique other than taijutsu is used then the user will forfeit! If someone comes to the aid of either combatant than that combatant effectively forfeits the match! There are no boundaries for this match! The winner will be decided by knock out, forfeit-spoken voluntarily or by cheating, or by my decision! There will be no killing! Do I make myself clear?" He called out surprisingly like a skilled referee.

"Hai!" both competitors called back.

"Are both competitors ready?"

"Hai!" they responded once again,.

"Hajime!" he called out before jumping back to the other kids, as Naruto and Kiba charged at each other, Kiba on all fours and Naruto on two legs his upper body held out forward just a short distance above the ground.

As they approached one another Kiba launched himself into the air with all four limbs before lunging at Naruto leading with his fist and aiming at Naruto's head. Naruto simply pivoted to the side on the ball of his right foot allowing Kiba to miss him entirely, passing a few centimeters by before throwing a left hook that made contact with Kiba's sternum while pushing off with his right foot. Before Kiba began falling away from Naruto, Naruto planted his left foot, taking a step closer to him, and stomped Kiba's sternum with his right foot, finally sending him sliding away. Kiba tried to get, but immediately broke out into a fit of pained hacking shortly after he put weight on his arms causing him to black out from the pain.

"Winner by knock out…Naurto Uzumaki!" the referee shouted. Kiba's group scowled at the outcome before just walking away. Naruto growled at the sheer lack of assistance that Kiba received, it really pissed him off that not one of those that came to support Kiba were willing to help him now that he lost. He walked over to Kiba and threw Kiba's arm over his shoulder helping him up.

"What are you doing? You won. Put me down." Kiba half barked and half wheezed out.

"I'm taking you to the hospital. I may have been the one to injure you, but this was just a friendly spar. There's no reason to just leave you out here. Your so called friends don't seem to be doing anything to help you. So just shut up and let me get your ass some medical attention!" Naruto replied spitting out the word friends.

"Language Naruto!" Hinata shouted out to him.

"Sasuke, get over here and give me a hand! I can't carry him by myself." Naruto shouted growling out that last part to himself low under his breath.

"Sure, sure." Sasuke mumbled back as he went to go help his friend, help the jerk.

"Oi, there's no point in taking me to the hospital. Just get me home, my sister can take care of this, and I'll be good as new for tomorrow." Kiba growled at Naruto, consenting in that statement to be assisted. By this time all of his supporters had left the area.

Naruto nodded before turning back to the others and calling for Hinata, "Oi Hinata-chan do you know where the Inuzuka clan compound is?"

"Hai, my otou-sama does a decent amount of negotiation with Tsume-sama, because Hyuga and Inuzuka work together often in the ANBU so I've been there a few times." She replied lowly and calmly.

"Do you think you could lead us there?" he went on to ask.

"Hai." She simply replied.

They began following them with Sakura joining them to bring up the rear, and Shino joining Hinata to help navigate, while the others headed for home. About ten minutes after they had left the training ground Kiba lifted his head slightly to speak to Naruto, "I demand a rematch Uzumaki. I will not stop until I have defeated you." He growled out with conviction.

Naruto briefly considered denying his demand before shaking his head and thinking against it before responding, "Fine, if that's what you want then I'll fight you at the same time at the same place tomorrow, if you're up for it."

Kiba slightly chuckled to himself before commenting, "You're on, dobe."

Shortly after their little conversation the group of six children arrived at the Inuzuka compound. Sakura knocked on the door prompting the guards on the other side of the gate to open it to admit them inside. Once Kiba's injuries were explained to the guards his sister was sent for and soon arrived.

"Kiba! What the hell happened to you?" She cried out as soon as the young woman saw her brother.

"Sorry miss; he just got his ass kicked is all." Naruto answered for Kiba.

"Naruto! Language!" Hinata said once again this time hitting him in the back of the head.

"Hinata-chan!" He whined in response.

"Do it again, and next time it will be charged with chakra!" She replied angrily.

"Yes ma'am." Naruto responded conceding defeat.

The young woman couldn't help giggle at the children's antics, before introducing herself, "I'm sorry it seems I haven't introduced myself, I'm Hana Inuzuka. Thank you for going to the trouble of bringing my brother back here."

Naruto answered for the whole group, "It was hardly a problem Hana-san. My name's Naruto Uzumaki, this is Sakura Haruno, and I'm sure you already know Hinata, Shino, and Sasuke what with their clans and all."

"Yes I am familiar with them, thank you all again for taking care of my brother." She replied.

"It wasn't a problem Hana-san we assure you." Hinata said for them.

"Now I think I can this idiot to you ma'am, sayonara." Naruto said as he and Sasuke laid Kiba down on the ground before the group took their leave.

Hana figured there was more to the situation than what she was told so she began questioning her otouto, "Kiba what is it that they didn't tell me that seemed to be important?"

Kiba turned away from her before answering him, "It was Naruto who I was fighting, I challenged him to a fight. It was him who organized the others to help me."

Hana couldn't help but start thinking about that information as she grilled Kiba for his recklessness, 'Naruto Uzumaki eh, good qualities to be able to lead with humility, forgiveness and command strength. To be able to forgive an opponent and convince his allies to do the same, that would be a good alpha for the pup to follow.' She cut off her musings as she realized she couldn't hear her little bother's voice anymore. Looking down she noticed that he was going blue from lack of breath, and she realized she closed off the internal injury leaking the blood so tight that it was cutting off blood flow, "Oh my God, Kiba!" she shouted working on fixing that problem as well.

Every day for the next two weeks Naruto and Kiba would meet to spar against each other. Every day Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura would bring him home to be fixed up after Naruto beat him up, sometimes Hinata and/or Shino would join them. Every day Kiba would lose another few supporters. By that second Friday Kiba had no supporters left.

Naruto was walking out of the academy to meet his friends and Kiba at the training ground. Approaching the gate he heard some muffled thumps coming from around then corner of the school. He turned around and went to find the noises, when he came upon a ridiculous scene. There were nine boys, probably three or four years older than him, pounding on the slouched form of Kiba Inuzuka. He immediately shouted, "WHAT"S GOING ON HERE!"

One of the boys turned to Naruto and immediately started growling out, "This little gaki wasn't showing us the proper respect as upper classmen, so we've decided to teach him a lesson. Now should just move along gaki or we might need to teach you the same thing." He said before turning about to continue pounding on the younger student.

"I don't care what you're reasons are! Nine against one is anything but fair and I refuse to sit here and let you get away with it!" He threw himself at the boy's neck who had just spoken to him, squeezing until he fell unconscious do to loss of air, before continuing to charge into the mass of bullies. Putting his back against Kiba as he stood to face off against the bullies, "Come on dog breath, you can't let these lowlifes kick your ass!"

Kiba lifted his head up slightly to look over his shoulder at the blond, "What the hell are you doing here dobe?" he huffed out unbelievingly.

"I heard some sounds and come to find a bunch of upper class bullies beating the crap out of you."

"This is my fight, not yours. Stay out of it!" Kiba growled out gaining back a little more of his fire.

"It's not like you have any back up here. I hate it when people who have a clear advantage over someone gangs up on them. It's just not a fair enough way to fight. Besides you're my class mate, and I refuse to let anything happen to a class mate of mine! Believe it!" he growled out before through more into his taijutsu. Kiba just smirked as his eyes too returned to a blazing inferno as he began fighting back.

The two continued to fight against the mob for roughly five minutes. They had been cut off from each other though they had managed to each knock out another opponent. Unfortunately, now the six older boys had divided up into groups of three splitting Kiba and Naruto up so they couldn't watch each other's back. The two younger boys were beginning to be overpowered, when all-of-the sudden one of the boys who Naruto was literally facing dropped as blunted kunai hit him in the chest with enough number and force to knock him down, ultimately causing him to hit his head and fall unconscious. The other two suddenly slumped over and fell to the ground revealing Hinata and Neji each with a couple of fingers extended pointing at points where Naruto's assailants had once stood.

Naruto looked over to see Lee and Sasuke charging in fists a blazing each taking on a different opponent as Chouji tackled the last one onto the ground pounding into him with his fists. He also noticed Shikamaru and Shino standing to the side with their hands in their pockets looking unconcerned while Sakura and Ino helped Kiba limp away from the fight zone. Tenten was squatted down on her haunches with two more blunted kunai in her hands ready to attack again if necessary.

Hinata walked over to examine Naruto's wounds, "Are you okay."

"Don't worry Hinata I'll be as good as new in a day or too. Thanks for helping out." Naruto said.

"We would have been here sooner if you'd have told us you were going to do something stupid like this!" Hinata yelled at him content that he was alright. Naruto just scratched the back of his head grinning in response.

Once they were done cleaning up the thugs they began taking Kiba home to be checked out by his sister, this time going as a full group.

Kiba raised his head to glimpse at Naruto who was walking beside him, but not carrying him for a change, "Why did you help me? I've caused you nothing, but trouble and yet all you do is repay my anger with kindness. Why?"

Naruto looked over at Kiba and smiled before answering, "I'm going to be Hokage one day. As Hokage I'm going to have to take care of my citizens, and as my classmate you are a citizen just like the rest of my friends. I refuse to let you down."

"Thank you Naruto, I'll have to make sure you become Hokage so that I can repay you for this." Kiba responded.

"Does that mean you'll finally join us for lunch and after school training?" Naruto asked smirking.

"Sure why the hell not!" Kiba shouted out, "Although if we're gonna be a group of badass ninja we're gonna have to have a name. So what do we call ourselves?"

This drew a pause from everyone as they began thinking before Naruto decided to answer, "How about we keep it simple and just call ourselves the Konoha Ju Ni?"

"Doesn't sound too troublesome." Shikamaru.

"Certainly respectful enough." Neji.

"Father would be proud of such a name, I'm sure." Hinata.

"Why not?" Sakura.

"It is a logical choice." Shino.

"It suits us precisely." Tenten

"Yosh what a grand name!" Lee.

"Not bad." Ino.

"I like it." Chouji.

"I'll agree to it." Sasuke.

"Sounds good to me." Kiba.

"Alright then from this day forth we will be known as The Konoha Ju Ni!" Naruto shouted out leading a chorus of cheers from his eleven friends, until Kiba let out a moan of pain caused by the cheer, and they hurried to get him to his sister.

AN: this is my third story and if you have any problems with it you need to give me a break. This wasn't supposed to be perfect it was just supposed to be the prologue and it was actually supposed to be a lot longer than this, but I grew tired of putting this off so here is the first part of chapter one. I'm going to start adding on to this chapter in pieces in a hope that one day I will actually finish this chapter. Though, most of the big events have already been taken care of. If you have problems with any more of the chapter you should take into consideration the fact that this is the first story I'm posting that is only rough draft all of my other stories were at least started on paper. Well that is pretty much all I got to say except read and review –flame if you have to just review. See ya next time on Konoha juuni.

**Huff…Huff…Huff finally done with this chapter I think it's a lot better now that it is done. Unfortunately, I'm probably going to put more time and effort into this story than my others as canon can only make it better. Most of the chapters will probably come out broken up like this so keep checking back for updates though I'm going to try and make it obvious when it has been updated. Well until next time Ja!**


	2. Interlude Story Time

AN: I've finally begun chapter two…the world must be ending.

AN2:Sorry for the long wait folks, but unfortunately not a couple of weeks after I got my new computer it took a nose dive and landed on the ground taking my flash drive, which had my entire digital life for the past 4 and a half years on it, with it so needless to say I was so pissed off after that, that I just decided I wasn't going to write anymore for a while. That was about 4 months ago and I've grown tired of leaving my projects on the back burner because of my own anger so here you go, though how much enjoyment you'll get out of this is debatable given its just an update to my last chapter.

By the way I lost some of that chapter in the damage and had to rewrite it, now I feel this Ichiraku was less adequate but I like this summon scene a whole lot better.

Disclaimer: I will not repeat myself!

_**Chapter 2: Interlude: Story Time**_

It had been one year since there first year of the academy had begun, and eight months since Kiba had joined their group and they had begun meeting together after classes, over the weekends, and on school breaks. Naruto and the eight in his grade were now all at least eight and second years while Lee, Neji, and Tenten were third years and beginning to earn some respect in the academy, even with Lee's low class grades.

Their training was rigorous. Shino had been dispersing his bugs throughout the training grounds, and had been using them to observe the other ninja who were training and practicing jutsu. He found a jounin using an interesting technique called _**kage bunshin no jutsu, **_which according to his bugs allowed the user to distribute equally one's chakra into solid clones. Shino initially dismissed most of his intrigue regarding the technique as it would be too chakra intensive for any of the konoha juni, bar Naruto, to learn, until his bugs noticed an interesting side effect of the technique. They noticed that a small stream of chakra returned to the user upon the clone's destruction, Shino hypothesized that the stream was-potentially-comprised of an information transfer that sent the memories of the clone back to its creator. If his hypothesis was correct-which he would not be certain of until experiments were performed with the technique-then it would open up all kinds of possibilities ranging from expendable spies, to ridiculously accelerated training methods.

As soon as Naruto was informed of the technique, he made it the first goal for their training: to be able to safely create and sustain upwards of ten kage bunshin at any point of time. Shino used his bugs to monitor everyone's progress and inform them of when they would safely be able to begin working on the technique. Meanwhile Hinata and Neji taught them chakra control developmental exercises such as leaf spinning, tree climbing, and water walking, and the group worked on the exercises and combinations of the exercises, such as running over the water, while balancing leaves all over their bodies, walking up nearby waterfalls-the few available-and racing over bodies of water.

Lee was originally put off by these activities, as due to his difficulty with his chakra he would not be able to join in the exercises with his friends, that is until Naruto convinced Lee to attempt to learn how to perform the same actions using only raw speed and momentum. This stirred a fire inside of Lee, so while his friends were climbing with their chakra he would be found nearby performing sprints of varying distances pushing himself to go faster each sprint. While his friends were standing upside down or on top of the water to build up their reserves Lee would be found running around the village as fast as he could at a constant pace, attempting to increase his speed with each lap he performed building up his stamina. By the time, the school year was up and Naruto reached the ten kage bunshin goal Lee was able to actually run over the water if he never slowed down.

Naruto continued to train and study using the _**kage bunshin no jutsu **_for the coming two months until the beginning of their next year at the academy as he waited for his friends to catch up on their training. His accuracy, random factual knowledge about history, chakra control, and chakra capacity were all improving rapidly to the point where he could actually summon up fifty bunshin by the time his friends caught up with him.

The day had finally come when Sakura and Tenten finally mastered the kage bunshin to the pre-required degree and not a day sooner in Naruto's opinion because they were all down to one week left before the new semester, and Naruto wanted to make the best of that last week.

That morning when everybody arrived at training ground 12, which the group at essentially confiscated for their own use, Naruto told Shino, "Today we need your bugs to spread all throughout the scrolls of the village looking for jutsu and information on jutsu, we need everything you can find. Do you think they can do that? One of the prime targets will probably be the files of the Hokage."

Shino just looked at him impassively before responding, "It will be child's play. In fact I had already suspected you would ask this of me so I have already dispersed my kikaichu."

"Alright I'm going to go ask the Hokage for something that might be able to help us with some things." Naruto said, inviting the others to give their plans.

"Neji and I will look through our family's library. While it probably won't have much ninjutsu and our family tries to avoid other taijutsu styles we still keep track of the taijutsu we come across there should be styles in there that we can all use to advance our taijutsu technique. Plus I'm sure multiple styles will give Lee an advantage in combat to make up for his lack of diversity in attacks." Hinata said softly.

"YOSH, Your Concern Is Greatly Appreciated!" Lee yelled out before the others could calm him down, he had been getting into a habit of doing things like that recently, he calmed down before he began to give his plans. "I have come across an interesting Jounin during my laps around the village who seems to be an expert in physical development, perhaps if I find him he would give me some advice on such things!" he replied excitedly.

"Just make sure you keep it general information or directing you towards other sources of information. No matter what don't make him think there are more people involved than just you and don't let him get the idea of how far you want to take these lessons. We don't want anyone to know what is really going on here until we're ready." Naruto warned cautiously, everyone there knew why Naruto was so cautious. They had each at one point or another seen the looks-or in some cases lack thereof-that Naruto received and they all feared that there were those within the village brave enough to do more than look though no one had tried anything yet. Their association put them in danger as well, and they knew Naruto would never forgive himself if something happened to them.

"Do not worry Naruto-kun I will be extremely careful." Lee assured him.

"Alright," Naruto still loved the village and its people, but he would not allow that love to blind him and put these people in danger.

Sakura went next, "The librarians don't seem to have a problem with my family so I'll see what I can get out of there, it might take some deep searching, but I think there is a gold mine in there if I look hard enough."

"Since there aren't any seal masters in the village currently that I know of, I've been going back and forth with one of the local blacksmiths. I think I may have worn him down to the point of being willing to give me some advice so that maybe I'll be able to start up a forge for us sometime in the near future." Tenten informed.

"I was planning on looking into my clan library to see if there is anything about poisons beside all of that psychological stuff. I'll probably look through that too, but if I don't find anything else I'll probably join you at the library forehead." Ino said, she was the only one, outside of maybe Sasuke, who wouldn't do such anyway, allowed to call Sakura that and it had become a sort of nickname.

"Yea, I'll probably do the same thing, though more than likely I'll be sifting through cool stuff about food and nutrition!" Chouji said.

"Ditto, but with historical battles and tactics." Shikamaru yawned before laying his head back down. Everyone was sitting against a different tree in a circle in the forest surrounding training ground 12, except Naruto, Neji, Sasuke, and Shikamaru. The latter one was lying on his stomach between Chouji and Shino, with Ino on the other side of Chouji. Naruto was standing and leaning his shoulder against the tree that Hinata was reclining against, between Shino and Kiba. Across from him Sasuke was doing the same only it was Sakura reclining against the tree between an equally relaxed Ino and Lee who was practically bouncing up and down while sitting Indian style under his tree. Neji was leaning, arms crossed and eyes closed, against a tree between Tenten and Lee across from Chouji. Though his eyes were closed, everyone noticed the veins around them assuring them that he was monitoring the area in case of intruders. Though Naruto had a feeling, he was also focusing on his cousin knowing Neji's protective nature.

"Is that really all you have to say?" Sakura asked incredulously.

"Words are too troublesome," Shikamaru, mumbled not even raising his head.

"Alright, moving on," Naruto intervened before a conversation could get started, which would end with Shikamaru's head in the dirt courtesy of Sakura's fist. A fiery one that.

"I guess I'll just spy on the training jounin and chunin with my sharingan to pick up a few of their jutsu." Sasuke sighed out.

"Sasuke…"

"Don't worry dobe if I get caught I'll just pull the last Uchiha's arrogance card on them, and get off scot free, in which case you wouldn't have to worry about my thievery. C'mon we are training to become professional assassins and thieves and that's what I'm best at."

"Doesn't mean I have to agree with it teme." Naruto and Sasuke had developed their own nicknames based on the personas that showed in the academy, with Naruto always aiming for the dead last position to see how good he could act, and Sasuke acting like an asshole to keep the adults from getting suspicious of any potential relationships that might be seen as problematic. Some would be worried that the Uchiha was becoming too close to the village troublemaker. Others might be cautious of the Uchiha worming his way too close in with one of the clan heirs. As for the conversation: Sasuke always saw things as a traditional shinobi and was better at it like that, Naruto on the other hand acted more like a samurai than a shinobi in Sasuke's opinion, what with his strict code of honor. Except of course when it came to pulling harmless pranks in which Sasuke loved to assist him if only to help bring out the blonde's inner shinobi. Naruto looked over at Kiba and asked, "So what about you? What are your plans Kiba?"

"Well I ain't too good at studying so I'll hang with you Naruto. Hokage-sama is a pretty good story teller." Kiba responded.

"Alright then, it's settled we'll meet back up at Ichiraku's for lunch at noon, and then come back here to see what all we've found to help in our training." Hinata suggested.

There was a general murmur of agreement before it died down and Naruto yelled out, "Then let's go!"

Shortly after Naruto and Kiba entered the streets of Konoha, Kiba began getting jittery. He turned to his friend and de-facto leader and said, "I'll race you to the Hokage tower."

A grin quickly spread across Naruto's face, "Loser has to pay for lunch?"

"You're on!" and with that the two kids were off like rockets shooting through the crowded streets of their home, spinning around pedestrians, leaping over carts, running on everything from the walls to the rooftops to the streets themselves. It did not take long before the two were skidding to a stop in front of the Hokage tower, Naruto a couple meters in front of Kiba standing as if he had just taken a leisurely stroll through the park, while Kiba was hunched over trying to force air back into his lungs after the kilometer long race. They had found a training ground not far from the Hokage tower so they would always know where they were and where it was.

Naruto turned back to his friend, "Don't forget Kiba I was the first to get a handle on the kage bunshin, and I still can make the most at fifty, you're only at twenty-eight. You might be fast, maybe even fast enough to outrun me, but you can't out last me." He grinned at that last comment before breaking into outright laughter, "And it looks like you're buying lunch today. Man this is gonna be good, I'm totally gonna milk this, ramen, ramen everywhere!" he began singing.

"Damn It!" Kiba yelled out as he just realized his mistake, never put ramen on the line in a gamble with Naruto.

Shortly after the two kids composed themselves and began taking off up the Hokage tower, before barreling into the Hokage's office with Naruto yelling, "Jiji!"

The Hokage chuckled at the antics of the children before setting down his paperwork and giving them his undivided attention, he certainly enjoyed these breaks from paperwork whenever Naruto forced them on him, "What can I do for you two today?"

Naruto quickly broke out in a face-splitting grin as he began, "Well Jiji in class we were studying about the Dinsatsu no Sennans…"

"It's Densetsu no Sannin Naruto, man you can be such a baka sometimes." Kiba corrected eliciting a chuckle from the Hokage and an ounce of annoyance from Naruto.

"Well if you're so smart then why don't you ask Jiji!" Naruto countered, causing the old man's chuckle to build from the situation. Kiba just responded with a clueless look and a shrug of his shoulders eliciting a growl of annoyance from Naruto and the Hokage's chuckle to turn into full-blown laughter.

Once the Hokage settled down Naruto continued, "Anyway we were studying about the Densetsu no Sannin and me and my friends got to talking about what made them so strong. We figured that, even though you must've been an awesome sensei Jiji, it must've been their summons that made them so awesome! I mean all of their techniques that Mizuki-sensei mentioned had something to do with their summons so that must've been it!"

The Hokage looked at them with a contemplative look before speaking, "I suppose their summons did make them quite powerful. So let me guess you want me to give you summons to I suppose?" Hokage asked his face scrunched up in amusement at the audacity of the assumed request.

"Oh no nothing like that, Jiji." Naruto hurried to cover up, "I was just wondering where they got them."

"Where they got them?"

"Yea, yea could you please tell us where they got their summons, pleeeeaaaassssseeee?" Naruto was giving him his most pathetic look possible. Kiba looked from the Hokage to Naruto then back before he noticed Naruto's look. He looked back to the Hokage before he did a double take and realized he should probably do the same and he gave the Hokage an equally pathetic look.

The Hokage took on a new look of contemplation, "How the Sannin got their summons, hm? Well I suppose I could tell you." This caused the two kids to shout out in joy before they settled in, in the comfortable chairs the Hokage had set out for meetings before the Hokage continued, "Well Tsunade found hers digging through her family's store houses shortly after Jiraiya displayed his skills in summoning. The Rokubi had left it as a parting gift for Tsunade's grandfather the Shodaime. How that snail had a contract for the slugs I have no idea, but somehow they did."

"As for Orochimaru I remember him coming back from a mission one day with a scroll on his back. The mission had been slightly more dangerous than the client had called for and Orochimaru said that it was a gift to make up for the difference in what the mission was labeled as and what it should have been, though we could never find the client after that to get confirmation so the truth about the snake contract is still unknown."

"Jiraiya, the first of the three to actually begin summoning, actually has quite a story behind him and the toads. It all began one day after one of our typical training sessions. I had the three of them perform what is called the bell test. Beforehand he and Tsunade had placed some kind of silly wager or other on the outcome of the test. He fell for everything; even the simplest of bait caught him.

"By the end of the test Jiraiya failed while Tsunade and Orochimaru each had a bell, so they passed. He was a terrible ninja way back then. I had no clue what to do with him, until I got a spark of inspiration. I showed Jiraiya the _**Kuchiyose no jutsu **_in an attempt to give the boy something to work towards. When he saw Enma he began pushing himself harder and harder building himself up physically and with his control of his chakra. Odd thing was he could walk up a cliff carrying a three hundred pound boulder and just be a little tired, but he couldn't climb a tree even after his training. Ha, ha, anyway I had been watching his training for a couple of weeks and then one day he goes to perform the jutsu. I try to stop him, he had yet to sign a contract, and he didn't even use any of his blood in the summoning.

"It's very dangerous to use the technique without first signing a contract, because instead of bringing an animal to you, it could send you anywhere. You never know where you will end up. Jiraiya got lucky; it sent him to Myobokuzan where after training with the toads they allowed him to sign their contract, as their third summoner. Well I suppose that's the story of Jiraiya and the toads. It's getting close to lunch time now and I need to get back to my paper work. It won't sign itself you know! You boys should run along." The Hokage said ushering them out of their seats.

"Oh alright Jiji, but one last question, how many kage bunshin do you think Jiraiya was able to make when he learned the technique?" Naruto said as he and Kiba walked to the door.

"Kage Bunshin? Well he didn't know the technique at the time, but if I had to guess I'd assume he could've equally split his chakra into ten or twenty kage bunshin though that may be pushing it. Then again Jiraiya always did have high chakra reserves." The Hokage said contemplatively.

"Thanks Jiji have fun with your paperwork!" Naruto called as the two children left the Hokage's office.

"Oh I will, I will." Sarutobi said still lost in a contemplative daze.

Kiba and Naruto were the first ones to arrive at Ichiraku's, and upon seeing their arrival Teuchi figured the rest of Naruto's friends would not be far behind so he began preparing the favorite ramen of each of the young children. Meanwhile Naruto was informing Ayame of how he beat Kiba in the foot race to the Hokage's tower, meaning Kiba would be the one to foot the bill for lunch. Kiba just blew a raspberry at his friend grumbling about cheating blondes. Ayame just giggled at the boys' antics. Both of them suddenly turned to look behind them as they heard a second voice giggling behind them.

Hinata and Neji were walking back up to the ramen stand, apparently having heard the story of Kiba's demise. Hinata was giggling along with Ayame, while Neji, ever the near silent guardian when Hinata was around, was remaining ever vigilant for any potential threat his eyes darting this way and that, not using his Byakugan to conserve chakra and keep from drawing suspicion to himself. They took up the two stools on Naruto's opposite side from the sulking Kiba. Naruto figured they must have sealed up any of the scrolls they found in their search in storage seals that Tenten and he had discovered in their free time over the past year, which Naruto really had more of especially after his mastery of the kage bunshin.

Soon the rest of Naruto's friends began coming in beginning with Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, and Sakura, both boys' pockets each had a bulge in it that when Naruto looked closely enough he noticed was also present in one of Neji's pockets. Lee, Sasuke, and Tenten soon followed them. Sasuke and Lee ran into each other while they were leaving the training grounds and then ran into Tenten on their way there, based on their story. Lee was also sporting a pair of black leg warmers that covered a significant bulge on both of his arms and legs as well as a bulky black vest that contrasted well with his white gi, which Lee clarified all consisted of weighted clothing which was given to him by a man he called "Gai-sensei," and was meant to help build up his strength, speed, and endurance. He also had a green spandex jumpsuit draped over his right shoulder which Lee claimed was to help make him more aerodynamic making him faster.

A silent look was shared between Naruto and Sasuke that turned into a silent conversation where they agreed to burn the spandex the first chance they got. A good laugh was shared between all that were present at Kiba's expense when it was widely made known amongst them that Kiba would be handling lunch, and Chouji challenged Naruto to one of their usual ramen eating contests, this time pleased that they would not be the ones footing the bill for this one. It had become a widely expected show amongst the group and usually decided who would be paying if a prior contest had yet to decide the always-present question. Naruto somehow maintained the lead at 19-13 but Chouji had begun catching up recently.

The ramen arrived a couple of minutes after Sasuke and his group and Naruto made a quick comment before taking his first bite, "Well I guess all that's left is Shino I wonder where he is."

He was answered almost immediately by the always stoic Aburame, "I am right behind you Naruto."

This caused Naruto to launch the ramen in his mouth in surprise as he turned around, "When did you get there?"

"Just now." Shino answered in a deadpan while most of the group broke out in hysterics at Naruto's surprise.

"That one doesn't count Naruto." Chouji chuckled as he ate his first bite.

Shino not being phased by his friends' mirth immediately addressed Naruto again, "While I found out a great deal during my reconnaissance I believe there is a particular few pieces of information that pertain to you and Sasuke specifically. I am going to need to see you both privately when we return to the training ground this afternoon."

At this turn of events Naruto and Sasuke stared at each other around their friends-Hinata, Neji, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, and Sakura sat between them, while Lee and Tenten sat on Sasuke's other side-then at Shino then back at each other then turned to rest their eyes back at Shino. Their friends followed a similar pattern though it seemed more like a triangle between the three. Meanwhile Teuchi and Ayame, not wanting to feel left out, began looking in a circle orbiting around the group over and over again until they began to feel dizzy and decided it'd be best to return to their work lest they become nauseous from the dizziness.

"Alright, Shino if that's what you think is best." Naruto responded, Sasuke giving a shrug of agreement.

"It is." Shino responded before taking a seat on Tenten's other side and began eating the ramen that Ayame sat in front of him. With that the kids returned to their lunch and began joking laughing and just all around acting like kids. Chouji and Naruto pushed themselves like never before, but Naruto returned to the top extending the gap that Chouji would have to fill catching up to him.

When they were done as, everyone began exiting the ramen stand to head back to their training ground Kiba moaned in the corner at the new emptiness in his wallet. "Aw, cheer up Kiba it's not that bad." Hinata tried to sooth.

"That was my entire allowance for the week." Kiba whined.

"That just means you'll have to do more chores around the kennel to refill it." Shino deadpanned feeling no real interest in the matter.

"Just take it as a lesson Kiba, never gamble against Naruto." Sakura giggled as she walked past.

"And you really shouldn't when you already know you're at a disadvantage." Sasuke added smugly

"Especially, when ramen is on the line." Chouji interjected.

"Amen," Naruto said patting his stomach while waddling away, "No one shall take the precious." This just caused a sweatdrop from the group as they walked away leaving Kiba to sulk in peace before he followed them.

The group had just arrived in training ground twelve when Shino dragged Naruto and Sasuke off into the woods. When he let them go Naruto immediately began complaining, "Dang Shino was the information really that serious I mean we didn't even get a chance to go over what all was discovered couldn't it wait? And why couldn't it be said in front of the others?"

Shino replied without missing a beat, "These three pieces of information could not be disclosed in front of everybody because they are specifically about you two, two about you Naruto and one about Sasuke, the only reason why I am willing to tell you both at the same time is because the information seems to be intertwined together. Of course I'm going to give each of you a chance to decide whether or not you want the other available to hear this."

"Of course we would, why wouldn't we?" Naruto barked out angrily at Shino's beating around the bush.

"This information is all at least S-class secret material, maybe even SS based on where my bugs had to search to acquire it." Shino responded

This calmed Naruto slightly at the sensitivity of the information, but he persisted, "I still don't get why the others couldn't know…"

"Naruto, my kikaichu found out who your parents are as well as why they aren't here, and trust me the information is nearly life changing. Some of it isn't very pretty either." Shino told him.

This stopped Naruto dead in his tracks and both he and Sasuke looked stunned. Sasuke was the first to regain his sense of composure enough to talk, "So what information do you have for me then?"

"My kikaichu found information on what happened the night of the Uchiha massacre from the perspective of the Hokage as well as information that occurred prior to and led up to that night. Trust me if there is any information uglier than what is keeping Naruto's parents from him it's the backdoor deals that led up to the massacre. In addition, I have cross-referenced the information with plans drawn up by the Uchiha's clan council in a secret meeting place within the Uchiha clan compound, as well as with decisions made by the former Hokage's within the village's archives. It is all logical if despairing." Shino informed them more long-winded than he had ever been.

This pushed them both back into a stupor as they decided to take a seat on the grass below, Shino sitting down across from them. This time Naruto was the first to respond, "How did you find this information?"

"My kikaichu were wandering around one of the Hokage's storerooms, it was full of scrolls that each were full of jutsu. They came across a specific scroll that was in a highly secure glass covered case. They observed it and found information on the kage bunshin within it. This made it seem promising however upon further investigation it turned out many of the jutsu on the scroll were too dangerous to study too deep into, the safest being the kage bunshin. It seemed it was arranged by level of danger from safest jutsu to most dangerous.

"As my kikaichu were leaving the scroll they found a crack in the pedestal that it sat on. After some investigation, they managed to find that the scroll sat on top of an even more high security safe. A few Kikaichu managed to squeeze in and discovered that inside were reports made by the Hokage of high-class village secrets. Most of the reports were of little to no value to us, but two of them stood out. One was labeled the Kyubi's assault. While at first it didn't catch their interest the name Uzumaki caught their attention, as they were scurrying across it, so they returned to analyze the full report. The other was the Uchiha massacre, which I wanted to see from the Hokage's point of view, until I had seen the whole report from them showing it too me. Now I'm going to ask again if you want each other present for this. It would be perfectly understandable if you want to hear this alone. So…?"

"Anything you want to tell me, you can tell Sasuke too." Naruto said with much more resolve than Shino thought he would have been able to muster under the circumstances.

"Agreed." Sasuke said with an equal amount of resolve.

"Very well, I will begin then." Shino said settling in for a long story. "I'll start by informing Naruto of the events surrounding his birth-"

"My birth?"

"Hai, the day you were born. Can you think of anything significant about that date?"

"Not really…"

"Didn't the Kyubi attack that day dobe?" Sasuke interjected.

"Well I guess it did, but what's that got to do with anything?" Naruto said obliviously.

"You'd be surprised how much it has to do with, Naruto. Your mother was the last heir to the clan that headed the Uzushiogakure no Sato, Uzumaki Kushina. She came here to take the place of her great-aunt Uzumaki Mito the wife of Shodaime-sama Senju Hashirama. Apparently Mito-sama sealed the Kyubi no Kitsune within herself with the help of her husband when Madara Uchiha tried to use the Kyubi to overthrow Shodaime-sama."

"WHAT! You mean one of my ancestors was married to the Shodaime Hokage and contained the Kyubi?" Naruto exclaimed in surprise.

"Hai, and your mother was coming to take her place because she was growing too old to maintain the seal. According to the archives, the Uzumaki clan was known for a vast skill in fuinjutsu as well as unusually strong chakra and naturally high chakra reserve and an odd longevity of life. They were the perfect containers for the bijuu especially the Kyubi. So upon Mito-sama's death the Kyubi was sealed into your mother and she entered the academy here in Konoha. Not long after that, the third great shinobi war claimed Uzushiogakure and most of its citizens as casualties; your mother became one of the last Uzu shinobi.

"Back to the report, the day of your birth your mother and father approached Sandaime-sama and asked for extra security and the absolute most skilled of medics to help in your birthing because according to the elaboration given in the report: when a jinchuuriki gives birth the seal that contains their demon weakens."

"Wait, what's a jinchuuriki?" Naruto asked, coming out of his state of awe, and confusion at the weird word.

"Yeah, and you said that our stories were intertwined, but I have yet to hear how." Sasuke said though he too was awestruck.

"A jinchuuriki is a human sacrifice; it's what people call those who are tasked with containing the bijuu. As for how this story concerns yours Sasuke I have yet to reach that point, though an eyewitness did report a conversation occurring between Kushina and your mother, who was holding you at the time. According to the report they made reference to you two and said something about 'becoming close friends' though the witness was a little too far away to get the whole conversation and was just passing by at the time."

At this new information Sasuke and Naruto couldn't help, but flashing each other a quick grin before returning their attention back to Shino before Naruto asked, "So now I know who my mother is, but who's my father?"

"The report doesn't say directly, always referring to him as 'Kushina's husband' or 'Naruto's father,'" Naruto looked downtrodden at this information, really wanting to learn who his father was, "However Sandaime-sama made a few crucial mistakes in hiding that information."

This brightened Naruto up immediately, but it was Sasuke who asked for an elaboration, "And those mistakes were? What kind of mistakes could Sandaime-sama have made that you would've picked up on?"

"First of all is the fact that he was apparently of a high enough profile to require that his name was kept secret on the document, even above the discretion of a jinchuuriki. Secondly, there is the fact that even though it was the seal that was weakening, the only assistants that were asked for were medically inclined or for use as bodyguards. Yes, they asked for the medics to be those with some knowledge of seals, but they did not request a seal master, which would suggest that your father must have been at least nearly as capable with seals as your mother's family. Finally, is the fact that they went to Sandaime-sama rather than Yondaime-sama who was the hokage in office at the time, and going off that Yondaime-sama is never once actually mentioned in the entire report. There are actions that the history texts say were performed that night by Yondaime-sama, but instead of even using Yondaime-sama the report just says 'he' or 'that man' or other anonymous titles such as these. Also while the texts say it was Yondaime-sama who defeated the Kyubi, the report says at that point 'Naruto's mother and his father' so going off this information I am lead to believe that Yondaime-sama was your father."

This information had Naruto once again shocked into a stupor, his role model, the man he wanted to surpass and whom he looked up to even over Jiji, was his very father. Naruto was speechless, so Sasuke asked the key question about some of the left out information, "Shino when you said Naruto's parents faced the Kyubi you didn't say what happened. Why?"

"I would like to inform you two about the rest of the report and give Naruto time to digest this information before I elaborate on that."

"Very well then, proceed." Sasuke said for Naruto who was still in a state of shock.

"Alright Sandaime-sama sent three ANBU, one of which was an ANBU captain and another who was a medic. Also Sandaime-sama's wife Biwako Sarutobi went with them as well, and they journeyed to a secret cavern in the location of which is not even disclosed within the document. There were no survivors of the process so no report could be given on what exactly happened though what is assumed is someone or a group of someones came shortly after Naruto's birth before the Kyubi's seal could be reconstructed and kidnapped Kushina after killing the bodyguards. This person, or group of people, was apparently after the Kyubi as they apparently left Yondaime-sama and Naruto alone once Kushina was taken away. Again, this is all speculation, as there were no survivors except for Naruto.

"The only solid piece of information that occurs from the report states that roughly twelve hours after they left the village the Kyubi appeared in a cloud of smoke a few kilometers to the East in the forest surrounding Konoha. The report goes on to describe the battle until the Kyubi is at Konoha's gates and focuses its attention on the Hokage Monument. It fired something that the report called a bijuudama straight at the monument when Yondaime-sama appeared and created a space-time barrier that transported the attack somewhere else. There is also an eyewitness report following this mentioning, that says immediately after the attack on the monument someone saw him fighting a man in all black; however, a clear view of the man wasn't seen and he is assumed dead after being hit by Yondaime-sama's rasengan."

"If that's the case then what is the point of mentioning it Shino?" Naruto asked finally coming out of his stupor though still in a slight daze so there was no real bite behind the question.

"Well there was no body found in the area that the separate battle was supposed to have taken place. Besides that I'm not sure, but my instinct tells me it's more important than that. Anyway, after that, Yondaime-sama appeared on the actual plane of battle then transported The Kyubi back to the place where it originally arrived from to begin its attack. After he disappeared Sandaime-sama sent some of the shinobi back to the village while he took some of those who were still able to continue fighting to assist Yondaime-sama; however when they arrived it turned out your father had put up a barrier around the area and your mother had restrained the Kyubi with what the report called 'her special chains' while your father was preparing seals and you lay on some kind of pedestal.

"They argued for a second before each of them held you and spoke to you. Your parents distance from any other witnesses and the angle that they stood kept their words unknown. Then the Hokage used a jutsu to seal half of the Kyubi's chakra into himself which he would take with him to the Shinigami's belly because of the technique, and sealed the other half into you, Naruto. The last thing the report said that your parents ever said was that they loved you and wished that they were there to watch you grow up. The report also says as a side note that it was impressive that Kushina had held on for so long because typically when a bijuu is removed the process kills the host."

The first tears that either Shino or Sasuke had ever seen from Naruto were falling from his cheeks, "I had parents, and they loved me. More than that, they trusted me enough to keep the burden that was passed through my family since the dawn of this village. Don't worry Okaa-san, Otou-san I'll be sure to make you proud." Naruto said under his breath, the last part of which he was looking up to the sky as he said it.

"Well I guess that would explain everybody's actions of caution around you." Sasuke interjected.

"It would? Hey yeah it would!" Naruto said as Sasuke and Shino sweatdropped at the obliviousness of the blond, even after all of his training.

Sasuke then turned to Shino and asked, "And what information do you have about the massacre?"

"It was all planned by the Hokage and his council."

"WHAT!" Naruto and Sasuke both shouted out in surprise.

"When Itachi became an ANBU, he was ordered by your father to spy on Hokage-sama, his councilors and the rest of ANBU. Fugaku was planning to use the gathered information to plot a coup-de-tat that would dethrone Sandaime-sama and instill himself as Hokage. When Itachi was given this information along with his assignments, he had a choice to make, his clan or his village. He knew that if this coup were to proceed as planned thousands of people throughout the village, both shinobi and not, would die. Therefore, he chose to support his village, and he took the information to Sandaime-sama. When Sandaime-sama learned of this, he began negotiating with Fugaku. Unfortunately, the negotiations were taking a negative turn. The Hokage and his councilors had developed a contingency in case the negotiations failed. They planned on eliminating the entirety of the clan: every man, woman, and child. Sandaime-sama completely disagreed with the plan only wishing to deal with the traitors, but Danzo overruled him and convinced the other two councilors that it was necessary to eliminate all seeds of treachery. When it came down to deciding who would carry out the plan Itachi volunteered for the act. He said that it should be him, because he was the most informed, would be the most capable of the task, and most of all he wanted his actions to be repentance for his clan. He felt that it was only right that an Uchiha eliminate them. The council agreed to allow Itachi to eliminate the clan, should this contingency be necessary.

"The Hokage refused to let it come to that, though, he continued to push for negotiations, and whenever the councilors came to him telling him that there was no time left, and that the negotiations were going to fail he ignored them. He refused to sign off on the contingency. Therefore, one day Danzo grew tired of waiting on Sandaime-sama and ordered Itachi to act on the contingency telling him that Sandaime-sama had lost all hope in the negotiations. When Sandaime-sama found out he was horrified, though there was little he could do in retaliation. That night Itachi approached Sandaime-sama and asked him to take care of you, Sasuke, that he could not trust you to the other councilors and that he could not stay because he felt his betrayal of his clan was just as bad as their betrayal of his village, yet he was too close to you and could not bring himself to kill you. He said he wanted nobody to know of the folly of the clan. That he wanted all ire to be on him, so that when you came to kill him and avenge the clan, it would be cleansed of its sins. He had hopes that you would rebuild the Uchiha clan and return it to its former glory and honor. That was his only request of Sandaime-sama before he left after executing his mission. As you can see Sandaime-sama has pulled through." Shino finished, he then rose and returned to the others allowing Sasuke to grieve for his brother's sacrifice.

"Itachi…" Sasuke mumbled shocked and sad there was little else he could do.

"Sasuke we need to join the others." Naruto told him softly. Sasuke turned to look at his first and closest friend, looking like a lost puppy, "I'm going to tell them everything, if they take it badly then they take it badly, but I want to give them that option. I know I'm going to need their help if I'm going to make Otou-sama proud, and make sure my parents' sacrifice wasn't in vein. Are you with me, teme-nii?"

Sasuke just nodded his head still looking lost as the two of them stood up and returned to the clearing. Once the two returned to the clearing Kiba immediately began yelling, "There you two are we were about to begin training without you two! C'mon Naruto I challenge you to a spar right now!"

Naruto just shook his head and addressed everybody still looking a little sullen, "Not right now Kiba right now I've got something to tell you guys…" and so Naruto informed them of everything about his heritage that Shino had just told him. When he was through, he addressed them once again this time sounding a little sadder, "Alright now I know that some of you may be a little cautious about the Kyubi so if you want to leave I will completely understand."

"Naruto Kyubi or no Kyubi you still saved my life." Hinata said in an adoring voice as she lunged to hug him, Neji just nodded in agreement, beside where she once stood.

"After the way you helped me out with my bully problem? There is no way I'm leaving you because of a stupid fox! Shanarro!" Sakura declared.

"You seem alright to me." Kiba said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

"My insects do not perceive you as a threat, therefore neither do I. If I did I just would not have come back." Shino informed stoically.

"You're a nice guy Naruto." Chouji answered before stuffing some chips into his mouth.

Shikamaru just sighed, "It's troublesome, but it's not like walking away will better my chances of survival or anything, it'd probably lessen them." He mumbled the last part under his breath so no one could here.

"Well if you've got my best friend and my boys then you're stuck with me! And I thought you'd already know that." Ino snickered.

"After all of my studies in seals I trust your parents." Tenten said calmly.

"You already know my answer dobe-nii." Sasuke said finally coming out of his stupor completely for the first time since Shino informed him of the truth, 'this, this is my family.' Sasuke thought to himself, 'The people who my brother killed for betraying our village may have been my blood, but this is my family.'

As Lee watched everyone else get to make some declaration or other he decided to make his own, "YOSH NARUTO-KUN IF THAT BEAST EVEN TRIES TO ESCAPE I WILL BEAT IT BACK INTO ITS PRISON, AND IF I CANNON DO THAT THEN I WILL RUN FIVE HUNDRED LAPS ON THE LAKE'S SURFACE, AND IF I CANNOT DO THAT THEN I WILL DO FIFTY LAPS AROUND THE VILLAGE ON MY HANDS DRAGGIND THE BEAST WITH MY FEET, AND IF I CANNOT DO THAT THEN I WILL-" before he could finish with his self-challenges he was hit over the back of the head by Tenten.

Neji had two fingers pulled back looking in their direction before saying, "You know I was about to do that." At this everyone broke out laughing.

As soon as the laughter died down Sasuke looked around and decided that it was his turn, "Guys, I have something to tell you also." And so he began telling his story, however he did not stop at just telling them what Shino had informed him of, he went all the way back to when Itachi joined ANBU and told both his and the Sandaime's side of Itachi's decision. By the end of the story, Sakura was holding onto Sasuke crying into his shoulder while he held her. None of the others looked too much better all of thing except for Naruto, and Sasuke looked just about sick to their stomach one way or the other. Even Shino who's high collar covered his face, displayed signs of being disturbed at the amount of betrayal. By the end of the story, he had his head held down with his bangs draped over his face hiding it from view. After a minute he began to speak again, "Well I guess you guys know now, I'm from a family of traitors. The only straight-laced person in my family is an S-ranked criminal. If you guys don't want to-"

"Sasuke don't even finish that sentence. If they take me then they're stuck with you. You're my brother and you're staying in my family whether you like it or not! Got it?" Naruto interrupted him forcing him to look up stunned at all of the smiles and nods he was receiving as Naruto threw his arm over the shoulder that was not occupied by containing Sakura's tears.

"He's right Sasuke we're not going anywhere, so don't even ask." Sakura said speaking up, "And now we're going to help you fulfill your brother's wish of returning honor to your family, just like we're going to help Naruto become Hokage!"

At this Shino cleared his throat, "Speaking of your deceased relatives, my kikaichu found something disturbing that you might want to know about a couple of weeks ago."

Sasuke looked at Shino curiously asking, "What's that, and why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Apparently someone has entered your family's catacombs and has stolen about ten eyes of the deceased. I hadn't told you earlier because I couldn't tell why, it had all happened at once and every rumor I'd ever heard about kekkei genkai theft or transference made claims of it happening while the wielder was still alive so I needed more information." Shino responded.

"And what did you find?"

"I've had kikaichu monitoring a number of old bunkers which I believe belonged to Orochimaru a few years ago before he was run out of town by Sandaime-sama. Oddly enough, one of said bunkers seems to have been used recently, seemingly as recently as a year ago. I've had my kikaichu focus on that one specifically the past couple of days and they seem to have found a scroll that has an old Uchiha legend on it.

"Apparently two hundred years ago there existed a man named Uchiha Kannon. He was a pacifist by Uchiha standards and believed in the Rikudo Sennin and that he was attempting to bring peace to the world. He was also a world renowned wielder of fuinjutsu and ijutsu. Senju Sengen Kannon, as he became known by civilians in honor of the god of mercy, was a man who was so demanding of peace that he approached the Uchiha council and asked that they use the Uchiha clan to set an example for the rest of the world by only raising their hands in conflict when it was needed to protect those who could not protect themselves. When the council refused his request, he left the clan.

"The council did not take this lightly, so they sent countless numbers of hunter ninja after him, and placed an extremely high bounty on him; however, his skills in fuinjutsu gave him chances to set unexpected traps and his skills in ijutsu allowed him to attack where he would do the most damage, and since those were two areas that most Uchiha perceived as beneath them, his pursuers were unprepared and easily defeated. Whenever Kannon would defeat one of his brethren he would view his actions as unbecoming so in an attempt to atone for the deaths of his family he would take the sharingan eyes of the fallen, which to an Uchiha was their soul, and he would implant them around his body using his expertise in fuinjutsu and ijutsu to make them just as effective as his own natural eyes. This was done to prevent the eyes from being abused by both his enemies and the clan's enemies. It was also done, according to his beliefs, in an attempt to use the eyes for a positive purpose to supposedly purify them if their wicked actions to those less fortunate.

"As he ran from his pursuers his stamina expanded to where he could create clones that allowed him to bring aid to countless villages, and his eyes allowed him to see all ailment and injury. He truly became an incarnation of the thousand armed and thousand-eyed god of mercy.

"Unfortunately, the Uchiha quickly caught on to Kannon's sympathies for the helpless and began to use those against them by attacking the weak. Kannon did not take this well and so he brought his wrath upon any man who dared provoke him in such a way. With his thousand eyes, he could not be snuck up upon and could not be trapped, and he could copy even more techniques to an even greater level of refinement noticing small details that even Uchiha missed. The greatest advantage though to Kannon was that he had recreated the legendary _**Izanagi no jutsu **_said to have been used by the Rikudo Sennin to a level no Uchiha before him had been capable of achieving and with his many eyes he was able to use it more often than any other. There were also rumors spread by Uchiha Madara that Kannon had developed a taijutsu, offensive sister technique to the Izanagi though he never elaborated beyond the name, _**Izanami no jutsu.**_

"Kannon waged a war against the Uchiha for one hundred years, outliving all of his brethren and living long past most other shinobi ever did. He was finally, brought down by the brothers Madara and Izuna who each used their Mangekyou Sharingan to cast a jutsu known as _**Tsusano'o**_. Madara's wielded the Yata mirror which reflected Kannon's _**Izanami no jutsu **_back at him weakening him while Izuna's wielded the blade of Totsuka to seal Kannon away forever." Shino finished reiterating the story.

"What does that have to do with Orochimaru's lab and the lost Uchiha eyes?" Naruto asked.

"It's obvious, are you saying that Orochimaru reproduced the same thing that Kannon Uchiha did to himself on Itachi?" Sasuke asked Shino.

"Not Itachi, he's been gone since he left the village. My guess is that he transplanted those eyes into someone within the village someone who had the ability to keep Sandaime-sama from finding out. In addition, there was a slight tent to some of the chakra still in the air that seemed overtly natural, contrasting Orochimaru's own apparent signature. Something else went on down there as well, but that is more than likely what happened to the eyes of some of your relatives. Of course it was on a much smaller scale than Kannon, but regardless the results could be similar."

"Well what are you going to do Sasuke?" Sakura asked the boy.

"I will not accept the further tarnishing of the Uchiha name. I'm going to find a way to reproduce the actions of my ancestor and keep those eyes out of the hands of those who'd abuse them by using them myself to return honor to the Uchiha name!" Sasuke replied.

"Then you have our help my friend." Naruto said comfortingly putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke looked around at his friends who each nodded their agreement. "But for now we need to return to training!" Naruto then shouted out to bring life back into the group as they charged the lake to get back to training.

The next morning Naruto decided that he wanted to learn whatever he could about his father's techniques and he wanted to start with the one that was easier for him to understand in terms of what it did, that being the rasengan. It was simple: it touched stuff and shredded them to pieces. Unfortunately, that was not enough to recreate the technique, which he felt like was his duty as Yondaime-sama's son to know his jutsu, so he needed more information. He brought this fact up to Sasuke, because most of the rest of the group was busy trying to increase their chakra capacity to the point where they could use the Kuchiyose, even if most of them did not have far to go. Sasuke had been trying to catch up to Naruto before hand and could actually make thirty-five bunshin.

"Well whenever I asked aniiki where he was going when he said he was looking for information, he'd always say that the bars are the best place to find information." Sasuke informed him. So with that information on hand Naruto took off to a bar to try and get some information on his idle and father, hopefully enough to recreate the technique. And what better bar to visit than the one that served the greatest food on the face of the earth.

"To Ichiraku's ramen bar!" Naruto shouted as he took off leaving Sasuke in charge of the rest of the groups training.

"Oi, oi, Teuchi-ji did you know Yondaime-sama, well?" Naruto shouted excitedly as he approached the ramen bar.

"Did I know Yondaime-sama? I was on his team when we both became Shinobi. Hai, it was me, him, and Mikoto Uchiha-chan training under Jiraiya-sama all the way up until he became a jounin sensei himself, and I was set apart as an add on for the other teams until the war ended and I was able to settle down and start up my ramen bar." Teuchi said explaining his involvement in the last war.

"Really, wow, so you trained with Yondaime-sama! You wouldn't know anything about his Rasengan or Hiraishin no jutsu, would you?" Naruto said getting even more excited, he had no idea it was this easy to gather information, he'd have to tell Sasuke about this later.

"Hm, no I don't know anything about the Hiraishin, I believe he started working on that, or at least with working on it with any success, after he left our team, but rasengan, well…" Teuchi contemplated.

"You know his RASENGAN?" Naruto practically yelled in his own excitement.

"Nah I don't really know it, it was never really mine or Mikoto's cup of tea. We usually preferred techniques that dealt with more elemental manipulation over form manipulation. Not to mention techniques that weren't constant puzzle impossible to complete." He responded.

"What do you mean impossible to complete? I thought the fact that he could use it was enough reason for it to be considered." Naruto said curiously.

"Jutsu creation is a lot more complicated than that Naruto. It's more than simply being able to do something. Besides the rasengan was never even meant to exist as a stand-alone jutsu to begin with." He continued to explain.

"Huh..?" Naruto just looked even more confused.

Teuchi let out a sigh before taking a seat behind the counter and leaning in to talk to Naruto, first quickly glancing around to make sure he would have enough time to tell his story, and finding all his patrons tended too he began, "Alright I guess to explain it to you I'll have to tell you the full story. Back when we were still in the academy Minato had this huge crush on this transfer student from our allies in Uzu, a fiery one that, always made sure to drag him by for a nice bowl of ramen after the war, of course back then she wouldn't even give him the time of day. That changed when he saved her life from a couple of Kumo ninja, but that's another story for another time. Anyway Minato wanted to get closer to her so he decided to do it by showing an interest in her family and by extension their jutsu, which was primarily fuinjutsu. After he was far enough along he began asking Kushina for assistance in order to spend more time with her. Of course she hardly ever noticed the ploy, and simply allowed it. The first task of assistance that Kushina assigned to Minato was a unique chakra control exercise."

"Chakra…control…exercise?" Naruto said twitching.

"Yep, you see Kushina's clan was known to have massive chakra reserves, in comparison to other ninja, so they had to develop a way to make their massive reserves more easy to control. Conversely, because they had such high reserves they could afford to use more chakra in their fuinjutsu than other ninja. In order to achieve better control and even greater reserves, they developed a unique chakra control exercise. It wasn't exactly secret it was just unique. Anyway the idea was to take a simple water balloon and pop through the constant rotation of chakra. Because of the focus on multiple vortexes of chakra it took quite a bit of control to utilize and because of the power needed to penetrate the rubber of the balloon through the tension of the water it increased the chakra reserves.

"Of course Minato was a perfectionist, once he successfully performed the exercise he refused to stop there. He trained with it to the point where he could eventually do it in his sleep. He continued to train with Kushina, but he never stopped working with that exercise on his own. He became so familiar with the exercise that he accidently used it after he caught an enemy shinobi's fist on one of our missions. While it wasn't as devastating as it would become over the next couple of years it was still enough to distract the enemy long en

ozAaugh so that he could be eliminated and it impressed Minato enough to look further into it.

"Soon it was all he did with his spare time, trying to find a way to make it stronger, more concentrated. It became an obsession. It took a while before Mikoto yelled at him, 'just upgrade your balloon to a rubber ball.' He got a light bulb expression on his face and went to it. Took him a while before he was content with his destruction of the rubber ball enough to take his new 'rasengan' out for a spin on a mission. I was fairly impressed by it, and so was Mikoto, but it wasn't good enough for Minato. He stressed with it for another couple of months before telling us that he wanted it to be more controllable, concentrated, focused. I suggested why not just stick it pack inside the balloon but not pop it this time. At first they both looked at me like an idiot, but after a few seconds he went to curious face and then his light bulb went off.

"After another few months he finally perfected it and even got Jiraiya-sama's seal of approval, he said it was the pinnacle of shape manipulation. Minato still wasn't satisfied, said he wanted to add an element but every time he tried he failed. We managed to drag him away from it for decent periods of time, enough for him to have some semblance of a life, but perfecting it became an obsession of his until the day he died. I didn't want to have anything to do with it seeing how obsessed he got with it, and neither did Mikoto so we never tried it."

"Wow!" Naruto said after Teuchi was done, "Thanks for the story, Teuchi-ji I'll come by and see you again real soon I promise."

"Hey wait Naruto! Don't you want some ramen!" Teuchi yelled out after Naruto's retreating back, but no response, 'I really hope he doesn't get dragged down into his father's obsession.'

On Naruto's way back to the training ground he picked up a few balloons that he could use for training. He spent the rest of the day working on popping the water balloons surrounded by his assisting fifty clones, while his friends worked on building their chakra reserves.

After a couple days all eleven of them that could use jutsu were able to create twenty kage bunshin, helped along by the kage bunshin themselves. Naruto stood in front of the group, "Alright now that everyone can make enough bunshin, I want to take care of something before we begin working on the training methods that were discovered a cople of days ago. It took a little while of searching but eventually my bunshin found these hand seals, ino-inu-tori-saru-hitsuji, and then slam your hand down on the ground for the _**Kuchiyose no jutsu." **_

"I saw that jutsu in the library! Don't you have to have signed a contract before you can use it!" Sakura said in surprise.

"Don't worry apparently once Jiraiya used it and that's where he got his toads so it'll probably do something similarly for us."

"Probably?" Tenten yelled out at the potential for failure.

"Guys just trust me." Naruto said before moving on, "Alright everybody on three: one, two, three!"

"_**Kuchiyose no jutsu**_!" the eleven of them yelled out while Akamaru took off racing Lee over the lake's surface in the background.

When the smoke cleared Naruto heard a coughing fit sounding off right next to him. He looked over and gasped at what he saw, "Kiba!"

"Naruto!"

"Where are we?"

"Hell if I know. Why are you asking me?"

Before Naruto could respond a rather relaxed sounding voice echoed over him, "On to new, or rather old, business. The hyenas are requesting reinforcements at the frontier land. They say they are being attacked by the other felines again. More specifically the lions, and leopards."

Another voice, this one more tired and irritated though slightly authoritative boomed out next after a quick sigh, "You'd think after how they were practically driven out of the feline clan they'd be gracious for us taking them in and getting them out of their hair. After Jinpi essentially made them second class citizens it was vile for them to claim protection and family over the hyenas."

A third voice, this one with a profound note of excitement hinging on imaturity, responded, "Hai, hai vile to do that to brothers and sisters!"

The second voice continued after sighing again, "Are the jackals prepared to defend our newer brethren?"

A fourth voice, this time speaking in primarily broken dialect, thundered next, "Yo, we tired of coverin for they sorry asses! Send somebody else to clean they mess! Better yet tell them to deal with it they own damn selves!"

The second voice countered back, this time with less disinterest and more authority, "That was not a question of whether you would go to their aid, Settai, because I ashore you when that statement comes it Will be an order, and you Will follow it without question. That was an inquiry into the preparation of your troops. Do I make myself clear?"

"Whatever, fool." The fourth voice responded with a note of defiance, though there was enough of a drop in his tone that it was clear the statement put him in his place. "We ready, if you need us. You just better not need us."

Another voice, further back this time compared to the four previous which were each equidistant, chimed in responding to the argument, this one was more drawn out as if in exhaustion though it held a note of concern, "If brother Settai does not feel his forces are enough to aid the hyenas against the lions and leopards of the feline clan, we of the bears have some relatives in the area, that while not quite as numerous as the others are by far more powerful. We would gladly lend our assistance, whatever we could, to our brothers within the hyena family."

Another voice on an equal area as the last, this one having a seemingly forced somber note but sounded scratchy as if it were used to saying everything between high-pitched laughs, accepted the offer, "My family would gladly accept any assistance that you can offer, Asa-dono. Arigato."

The fourth voice, now clearly identified as Settai, griped out, "Firstly, ya ain't my brother ya fuckin fuzz ball, so don't call me that! And secondly, ain't no fuckin way I'm gonna let some stupid plush toys do my jackals' job!"

Another voice, this one equidistant from the first four and sounding slightly uneducated, relaxed, and most importantly high off his ass, lulled over trying to calm Settai, "Hey man slow your roll, there's no reason for any hostility here. We're all brothers."

Settai quickly, responded "Man, shut the hell up, ya fuckin hippie!"

"That's enough! Settai your jackals will be the primary reinforcing group, and Asa's relatives in the area will dictate the secondary wave, now are there any others who would agree to assist the hyenas?"

A new meek sounding voice replied, "We have a few weasel and otter relatives in the area. They would gladly transport any needed food and water to the suffering packs."

"Arigato, Heiwa." The scratchy voice responded.

"Hai, arigato Heiwa-nii. Are there any others?" The second voice called out.

Another new voice, this time sounding robust and very low, yelled out, "We have some seals in the area. They can aid the otters in providing water and if you can position those cats closer to the river barriers they could supply ample reinforcement."

"Arigato, Taishoku. If there aren't any others available in the area, then we shall move on to new business. Rupusu!" The second voice called out. He was met with a hearty snore, "REPUSU!"

The sound of shuffling was heard before, the first voice, now extremely groggy, responded, "I agree with Kenshi."

This was met with slightly muffled chuckles from around the room a full-blown, high-pitched, shrill laugh from what must have been a hyena based on the context of his comments. The second voice impatiently barked, "The next order of business Repusu!"

While this entire conversation was going on Naruto and Kiba were just looking back and forth between the origins of the different voices as due to the apparent lack of light and the height of the voices their faces remained unseen. Though it was clear that none of them were humans as each creature in the room was far too furry as they sat back on their haunches on top of giant cushions the size of either Naruto's or Kiba's bedroom floors, two-dimensionally, and at least as tall as Naruto or Kiba was.

"Right, right the next order of business, ah, of course the devils." The now known Repusu replied.

"Ah yes how are the Tasmanian devils fitting in joining our lovely clan." The second, and obviously in charge, voice requested.

A new voice sixth among those closest to Naruto and Kiba, holding a slightly cultured note that somehow still seemed backwater, yelled out, "Those damn marsupials gettin all buddy, buddy with us dingoes like they're our pals, eating at the same table as us, runnin in the same woods it's damn near disgraceful!"

"I did not ask your personal feelings on the matter, Anata, I asked how they were settling in." the voice in charge declared.

This time instead of being met by Anata it was met by a new voice the same distance from Naruto and Kiba as the hyena only coming from the other side, "As Anata-dono said, in not so many words, we are settling in quite nicely. Your clan is very hospitable, and the land with which you have provided us is abundant and bountiful. We are most gracious." His voice was rough and thick, and it held a very heavy accent, almost nothing like that of Anata's.

"Very good Debiru, very good. And you have received no inkling of a threat from the other marsupials?" the leader called out.

"Threat? From the Marsupials? That's a laugh! The only half-way aggressive are the devils here, and it's doubtful even they could put up a decent fight!" Anata barked out condescendingly.

Debiru growled offensively at his first comment before answering the leader, "Anata-dono is correct. The most dangerous of the marsupials are the Koalas, and they spend too much time sleeping to really worry about something like this."

"The roos could probably put up a fight as well, but there too laid back." Anata added.

"Hm, we were considering taking the koalas and adding them to our clan. Do you think that would succeed and thus weaken the pressure either of you felt in your lands." The leader voice asked.

Debiru responded, since he had the most knowledge on the situation, "Well the Koala's hold quite a bit of sway in the whole Marsupial clan. It's doubtful that it would take much to sway them into our clan with their nature, and even more doubtful thanks to our familiarity with the bear family; however doing such would bring down the wrath of the entire marsupial clan. To them we Devils were just disposable muscle. The Koalas are practically their royal family. While the marsupials don't have too many other extremely combat ready families, they out number us. They also have the advantage of having flight capable combatants if only temporarily so, and kangaroos are fierce ground combatants and generals when they need to be. It would certainly be a difficult fight. An alternative could be simply taking in the entire marsupial clan as a branch of our own. They would welcome the protection and would hardly care of the control, if any, that would be pushed upon them. They care too little about most things. Unfortunately, I don't believe the clan currently has the resources at the moment to expand that massively."

"Hai, hai you are quite right those resources are currently unavailable, especially since we must expend so much on fending off the felines in the southwest from our new allies. Nor would a war of that scale be beneficial. I suppose we shall simply hold off on our conquests of the marsupials for now." The leader voice said with a deep sigh. He took a great breath to continue, "Well if no one else has any more to add I suggest we adjourn our meeting for today."

Naruto decided that then, before he and Kiba had to avoid a bunch of giant paws, would be the best time to make himself known, "Oi, oi who are you peo-uh I mean animals?"

The leader voice paused before saying with clear distain, "Who are we? Who are we? You enter our council chamber unannounced and listen into our meeting with no authority and you have the audacity to question us on our identities? Who, gaki, are YOU?" he responded.

"I asked you first."

"You think that I care? I am the one in charge here, answer my question!" The voice said before leaning forward enough to be visible.

As soon as Kiba and Naruto come see its face the blanched, looked down at the tail, or tails, looked back up at the face, then down at the tails. Then back again. This continued for a minute before yelling out, "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The ! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" They yelled like that for a few minutes.

While they were yelling the 'Kyubi' and Repusu looked back and forth between each other and the intruders. After a few minutes they stopped yelling and started sucking down air, and Repusu asked, "Ya done yet?"

"Not quite." Naruto said quickly through huffs.

"Very well, continue." Repusu replied, and they did, for another few minutes.

Once the calmed down Naruto took in a deep breath, and said, "Okay I'm done." He then took another breath, composed himself, and then yelled out, "How are you over there, if you're supposed to be trapped in here, Kyubi?" while pointing at his stomach.

"Ah, so you must be Otou-sama's newest jinchuuriki." He said.

"Father?" Naruto and Kiba shouted looking at each other.

Kyubi sighed before elaborating, "Hai, hai my otou-sama is the Kyubi no Kitsune. Not long after he was separated from the Jubi otou-sama ravaged your world; however, whenever he'd really get going he'd other be imprisoned by a fuinjutsu expert or stopped a beast summoned by one of you shinobi. Usually, when he was sealed it was still with the assistance of the other summons.

"So tou-sama became fed up with it and decided he would have his own summons for reinforcement. His goal was to conquer all of the summon beasts, and then use those forces under his control to decimate your world. He decided to begin by conquering those who were like him. He found my Ojii-sama and Okaa-sama, jii-sama being in charge of the kitsune clan. Tou-sama challenged jii-sama to a fight to the death, if jii-sama won he would gain the powers of a biju and if tou-sama won he would become leader of the kitsune clan and would win my kaa-sama as a mate. Unfortunately, it was a fool's gamble, but jii-sama was tempted enough to be that fool and accepted.

"After tou-sama became the clan's leader he went on to conquer other clans, beginning, once again, with those closest to him. First he conquered the other canines conquering the inu clan, then the okami clan, then the koyote clan, then the jakkaru clan, then finally the runpen clan. This of course took decades, perhaps even centuries. In my kaa-sama's first litter she had me, Kokei, and since then my tou-sama had begun breeding me to become the leader of the clan in his absence. What my tou-sama didn't count on was the amount of paperwork he'd have to deal with and how after each expansion into the clan that amount would become greater and more difficult. Once tou-sama conquered the kuma clan the paperwork became too much and he left us returning to wreaking havoc in your world, leaving me in charge of our clan. Since then we have expanded with the akairo no shimesu, sukanku, araiguma-ka, itachi-ka, and ashika amoka clans. More recently, we've brought in the haienaka, and fukuroneko-ka. Unfortunately, after tou-sama set the standard the some of the other biju followed tou-sama's example and so the Nibi's old clan is constantly giving us problems, and even more so since we've given sanctuary to their old haineka, or hyena clan." Kokei said ending his long explanation with some current event information.

"Wow!" Naruto said drawing it out, shocked at the total complexity of the situation.

"So we ask again, who are you guys?" this voice the excited voice from earlier leaning forward to reveal the head of a giant husky.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, obviously the Kyubi no kitsune's jinchuuriki, and this is a good friend of mine Kiba Inuzuka of Konoha's Inuzuka clan." Naruto said looking up and bowing to Kokei.

"Hai, what he said." Kiba said giving his own two cents.

"Ah, Konoha's premier Inuzuka clan, a family known for their bonding and partnership with domesticated dogs, I suppose I shall take you under my wing. You shall sign my contract and train with and alongside the dogs, coyote, foxes, dingoes, jackals, and my own wolves." Said Repusu leaning forward to reveal the head of a giant gray wolf. "I suppose you'll take your tou-sama's container, Kokei-sama?"

"Perhaps, if he proves himself." Kokei responded.

"Perhaps! I thought that was how it goes: we show up, show respect, agree to train and subjugate ourselves under you, and you let us sign your contract! What gives!" Naruto shouted in outrage.

"It is unorthodox Kokei." Repusu says to his superior.

"Perhaps, but it is also unorthodox for a child to appear before me requesting my contract. Gaki here is the first and I do not allow just anyone to join my family. He must prove himself first."

"Well then what's this all important test that I gotta pass?"

"All in good time." Kokei states, "But first I believe introductions are in order, I have already introduced my-self, to my right is my second in command Repusu the gray wolf leader of the Okami clan and commander of the inner canine family. To my left Kenshi the husky leader of the Inu clan. To the right of Repusu is Settai the jackal leader of the Jakkaru clan. To the left of Kenshi is Zasso the coyote leader of the koyote clan. And the last canine family member Anata the dingo leader of the Runpen clan.

"Next, the outer circle canids beginning with Asa the black bear leader of the Kuma clan, and leader of the outer canids. Next on his right is the red panda take leader of the Akairo no Shimesu clan. On his right is Akushu the skunk leader of the Sukanku clan. Then there's Sukabenja, a raccoon and son of the Shukaku, the leader of the Araiguma-ka clan. Then there's Heiwa the otter and leader of the Itachi-ka clan. Finally for the outer canids, Taishoku the walrus and leader of the Ashika Amoka clan.

"Last but not least are the two newest editions to this council. The hyena Kigeki in charge of the Haineka clan, and Debiru the Tasmanian devil in charge of the Fukuroneko-ka clan. Now that, that is takin' care of I suppose there is no further business to discuss."

"Calm down Kokei I still need to allow young Kiba-chan to sign my contract, and I suppose you could give Naruto-chan the instructions for his test while I send for my contract." He quickly summoned another wolf gave him the instructions and sent him for the contract.

Kokei sighed before giving in, "Very well, gaki your job will be to prove adequate in comparison to myself or one of my brethren in a sensory technique."

"What! How am I supposed to out sense a fox?" Naruto yelled out in objection.

"It is unlikely that you will be able to, but that is your assignment now good day." And with that Kokei turned his back to Naruto and left the chamber prompting the others to do so as well just as the wolf that was sent for the canine contract returned, and Kiba was instructed to sign it.

As soon as Kiba was done signing the contract it was rolled up and returned with its carrier while Repusu dropped down so he could speak to Kiba and Naruto from their level, "Good luck Naruto-chan I have faith in you. If anyone can get through to Kokei it's you and he really needs someone to do it."

"How do you know I can do it?"

"I'm a wolf. We have that kind of sense about this sort of thing especially when it comes to leaders and loners, and I haven't seen a leader like you in a long time." Repusu responded before he de-summoned the two of them sending them back to their plain of existence.

X

Kiba and Naruto returned seemingly after Sasuke, Neji, and Hinata, and after deciding to wait on the others' return they went off to train with Lee, by engaging in a free-for-all sparing match. They each had their own style of taijutsu to challenge Lee, who had devoted a decent amount of time attempting to perfect the academy style, with which to challenge Lee. Even Hinata and Neji had different styles of juken, Neji's more focused on traditional juken and Hinata's more focused around her flexibility and her own way of combat that she was still perfecting. Naruto was also developing a taijutsu style, though his was almost entirely from scratch, focusing around using his new found talent with kage bunshin. The differing taijutsu styles to fight against made for a unique training experience for Lee who was the primary target amongst the kids.

Slowly, each of the Leaf twelve returned and began joining in the battle royale, sometimes in groups sometimes completely on their own. Finally, Shino arrived back in the training ground as the last one of the twelve. Naruto called for a stop, as he began climbing out of a tree that had been half-asleep in, then dispersing his clones. The group returned their arrangement they were in the days prior before they went out to gather intelligence on new training techniques.

"Well Shino, you're the most recent back, how about you go first." Naruto said addressing his afro haired friend.

Shino nodded, "Very well, I arrived on a cliff surface facing a massive multi-tailed snail. He called himself Kiho and told me that he was the daughter of the Rokubi. He said that his father brought together the largest summon clan to exist, consisting of snails, slugs, clams, octopi, sponges, jelly fish, starfish, worms, crabs, arachnids, and insects. Kiho told me that before I would be allowed to sign her contract I would first have to convince each individual clan head amongst these clans that I was worthy of signing their respective scrolls.

"Upon this ultimatum I began by traveling the short distance to a nearby forest where I met the leader of the Insect clan, who just so happened to be the son of the Shichibi, Akiresu. After much discussion between myself, my insects, and him, he agreed to take me as his disciple and allow me to sign his contract.

" I plan on traveling to the arachnid queen Arakune the next time I go to the summon plane, which will probably be within the next day or so." It took him a minute or two, but he eventually completed his full report.

"Thank you, Shino, and good luck. I'm sure the variety will benefit your recon skills not to mention your fighting style. So who wants to go next?" Naruto said curiously.

"Well then I guess we're up next, right Shika? Cho? We were the last ones back before Shino." Ino piped up.

"Alright!" Chouji said a little excitedly.

"Sure, whatever, just as long as we can get this over with. Mendokuse." Shikamaru agreed, if you could call it that.

Ino opened her mouth to begin then closed it thinking, after a short pause she began, "You know on second thought it's kinda complicated…"

Shikamaru grunted before speaking up, "There's hardly anything complicated about it. Me, Chouji, and Ino used the jutsu and ended up appearing before a giant animal that was a cross between a dolphin and a horse. Called himself something like Ro, said he was the son of the Gobi, and as such in charge of the clan the Gobi left behind, called them the Ungulates or something like that. He split me and Chouji between what he called even and odd-toed clans and let Ino sign his contract. I met this giant deer who told me that I'd first have to prove myself in a test of honor before I could sign his contract and sent me on my way."

Ino huffed in irritation, "Thanks a lot Shika, I wanted to be the one to give the report." Shikamaru just shrugged his shoulders, causing Ino to sigh and calm down, "Well Ro just told me to sign his contract and report back to him in the next two days for training. He also said that he was trusting me very highly, and if I betrayed that trust he would remove me from the clan."

Chouji, who was just smiling like nothing could bring him down and eating chips out of a bag that no one knew where he had gotten, spoke up next, "Ro sent me to this deserty grassy place where I first met this mean horse. He called me an intruder and told me to leave, but then a large rhino came up and told him to stop, and he took me to this place in the desert place where there was a lot of food, and we sat and we ate, and the rhino let me sign his contract, before he sent me home."

As soon as Chouji was done the clearing descended into silence in shock and confusion of the stories told by the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, hard to believe when each of them had their own interesting stories themselves. "Was it something I said?" Chouji asked confused by the silence.

Finally, after a couple of minutes of silence Sasuke regained his wits enough to ask the first intelligent question since the story began, "What's an ungulate?"

Ino shrugged her shoulders in ignorance, and Chouji just kept eating his chips not really paying too much attention. Shikamaru begin to explain, "I asked Tokki, the deer I met, and he said that ungulates were the animals that walked on their toes." Once he said that he leaned back to where he was laying on the ground and looking up at the sky, cloud watching, expecting no more questions.

He got no more, and Naruto began getting back on track, "Ooooooooookkkkkkkkkkk, well who's next." Tenten went next explaining how she had met a clan of rodents, shrews and other odd animals led by a giant bat that wanted her to develop a balanced way to fight to earn his contract. Then it was Sakura, who met the descendant of the Nibi who was in charge of a feline clan the size of Kokei's clan, and seemed too lazy to give Sakura a test and just let her sign the contract. Followed by Sasuke who explained his Hinata's, and Neji's meeting with the birds of prey led by a falcon who let Sasuke sign his contract, while Hinata signed a contract with an eagle in charge of the birds of prey who slept at night, and Neji signed one with an owl who led the birds that slept during the day. They allowed the signatures based on the reputations of the individual Hyuga and Uchiha clans. Finally, it was Naruto and Kiba's turn to explain the meeting they had walked in on involving Kokei's clan.

"And I just don't know how I'm going to live up to Kokei's challenge." Naruto explained in slight distress.

"Dog families do have some of the best senses." Sasuke admitted.

"Except for sight, but then that won't help you in tracking unless you have a kekkei genkai, which you don't. Mendokuse." Shikamaru added in

Chouji snapped his fingers, "Maybe that's it! Maybe you have to learn a sense that they're not good at!"

"Like what? Shikamaru already admitted that sight wouldn't work, so what else is there?" Kiba bit out annoyed.

"No I think Chouji's right. A number of members in my family have trained up something they call chakra sense. Maybe that's what you could do. I mean how many sensor dogs could there be." Ino put in.

"Wow, thanks Ino. That might just be the best way. I get some clones working on it right away." Naruto agreed.

X

Woo finally done, well if you're still keeping track of the updates for this chapter here is the last one before I move on to chapter 3 which will probably be just as long, hopefully after that I can stop with background and start on canon.

So JA!


	3. Growth: (Final Draft)

AN: My most sincere apologies about taking so long to get this up and finished, but between boot camp my job training, which isn't finished and is the third most difficult academic program in the country, and all my other stories both present on the site and off that I'm working on, I swear I must be a.d.d. to have that many, I've been too busy to relax let alone write. The next chapter should not be as long because I'm finally getting into canon plus tying up a few obvious loose ends left doesn't mean it'll be out anytime soon, but one can hope. Well without further ado heres another disclaimer.

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto

Now without further ado the Chapter:

GROWTH

Once everyone was done giving their individual reports on their summon partners, the group decided that it was finally time to go over the information that they had discovered during their week's prior fact finding mission. Unfortunately, Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino, Hinata, and Neji each agreed that the information they had discovered was only beneficial for personal growth, though they had copies of the scrolls they had found in case any of the others wanted the information; however, Chouji admitted that his studies had given him an idea which he would be keeping a secret for now. Shino admitted to having already disclosed any of the shareable information, and that most of what he had found in the jutsu department, he felt, was best left untouched upon, and that it would be better if they each discovered their own style of jutsu. Sasuke agreed to being in a similar situation as Shino; however, he also admitted to having discovered a jutsu or two that he wanted to replicate. Though due to the techniques' difficulty and danger level, he probably would not be using them in the very near future. Tenten said that her trip to the blacksmith was successful, and that she had high hopes of being able to forge minor weapons by the time she had graduated from the academy. Lee revealed an entire workout regimen for developing strength, speed, and stamina that was provided by this 'Gai-sensei' and the group agreed upon certain parts of it to be used for their own regimen depending on the day's dependency on bunshin, though most of the group was beginning to ease off on their usage of the bunshin just a little to keep from completely blowing themselves out.

Most of the group had decided to only use ten bunshin unless it revolved on a particularly long subject area. The only other reason to have more bunshin was decided that they would each send one to school in their place so that they could focus more of their time on training. Except of course for poor Lee who with his messed up chakra network could still not mold chakra. Of course Lee took this in stride using it to motivate himself even further in the time he did have. The exceptions to that group were of course Naruto, and Sasuke who were both pushing themselves to their furthest learning as many skills as possible at the same time…even though they did not particularly have much to kill themselves over at the time.

It seemed like the only one who had come back with decent information was Sakura, not to say she did not find something for herself: she happened upon a book focusing around medical theory that had captured her interest driving her to look into ijutsu. Besides the medical information she had also found a number of books surrounding chakra nature composition and techniques that surrounded around building up one's nature affinity. It took her a little while, but she donated a decent amount of time over the course of the last week into finding chakra paper, and she eventually succeeded. Upon this information Naruto had her pass around the slips of paper and even Akamaru got one so they could each see where they should go in that regard.

Shino, Tenten, and Akamaru each burned their chakra slips to ash.

Chouji, Shikamaru, and Kiba's slips all ground to dust.

Neji, Sasuke, and Ino's slips all crumpled up.

Sakura, and Hinata's slips both soaked through with water.

Naruto's split in half, while unfortunately with Lee's lack of chakra ability at the present he could not be tested.

Sakura immediately went into explaining that it meant that: Shino, Tenten, and Akamaru all had fire affinities; Chouji, Shikamaru, and Kiba all had earth affinities; Neji, Sasuke, and Ino all had lightening affinities, to Sasuke's surprise at being in this group rather than the fire one; Hinata, and herself both had a water affinity; and finally Naruto was the only one with a wind affinity. After this discovery the group agreed that it would be best if they held off on nature training until they had successfully signed the contract with their summon clan. Those who had already succeeded in that regard could go ahead and begin their element, but they would mostly be training with their summons as well to better the relationship and become stronger under a more proper taskmaster.

X

A month had passed and with Naruto dedicating upwards of 50 kage bunshin to studying every bit of information that Shino, Ino, Kiba, and Neji and Hinata were able to provide on the subject of chakra sensing-as the Hyuga, Inuzuka, and Aburame clans each had skilled sensors along with the Yamanaka clan-Naruto was finally able to impress Kokei, and was finally beginning his training under the canids. Shino was making a great deal of progress with the individual invertebrate clans only having the jelly fish and sponges left before he could sign Kiho's contract. Shikamaru had effectively finished his task and was now studying ninjutsu and strategy under the deer, and their sister families. Tenten was still working on developing her combat style to impress the rodents.

The group had returned to the academy for a month now, and every one of them barring Lee was going to class through a kage bunshin while they themselves spent their time training aided by another ten bunshin. Lee had just gotten out of class for the day and gone to the group's unofficial training ground where he saw Tenten working. While typically he'd be more than happy to assist Tenten recently Sakura, Neji, and Hinata said, after an analysis on his chakra pathways, that he might be able to one day perform jutsu, at least to the point of basic chakra expulsion like what was done using tree climbing and the similar exercises, and so instead of assisting Tenten he moved under a tree to begin meditating in hopes of developing his chakra paths better.

All of the sudden a poof of smoke appeared in the clearing and out stepped Sasuke, having just returned from a grueling lesson with the falcons. The birds were constantly forcing him to develop his natural sight along with his other senses as well as pushing his speed and agility beyond any levels Sasuke had ever expected. The raptors were also highly skilled in ninjutsu and were encouraging Sasuke in his elemental development by giving him advice whenever he needed it.

As the tired form of Sasuke stepped into the training field he took notice of Lee meditating under one of the trees and decided to not disturb his excitable friend. He approached Tenten, his sharingan still active from his developmental training with the falcons-the results of which he could not deny as it had already strengthened to two tomoe per eye-so that he could inquire Sakura's location, not that he really needed to if Naruto was constantly training with Kokei then Sakura was just as constantly studying in the library.

As he approached Tenten he took note of her practicing with a katana, and unintentionally memorizing her kata before quickly shutting off his sharingan to keep from stealing more of her techniques. "Oi, Tenten, you wouldn't happen to know where Sakura is, would you?"

Tenten stopped her kata, and wiped some of the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand, before answering, "Please, like I'd have to tell you. Unless you're looking for a clone, which are all over the place working on soaking through leaves, then you'll have to go to the library, and you might only find clones there too. Turns out there's a training area at the hospital that'll except anyone who knows the mental portion and is ready to move on to the practical side of ijutsu. Good luck." She said before getting back into her kata.

Sasuke sighed, "Well I guess it'd be too much to hope that Naruto or any of the others are back yet from training with their summons."

This time Tenten did not even stop her training, "Nope, just me, you and Lee, unless you want to interrupt a clone's training. I'm sure you could find one of Naruto's sixty working on the rasengan somewhere."

Sasuke gave another sigh before really taking a look at Tenten's sword training and realizing his interest in it, "So what's with the swords?"

Tenten continued moving as she answered, "Well while I'm good with seals without trying, seals don't help too much in a fight at the level I'm at, mostly all I can do is containment. So to develop a fighting style I had to find something else I was good at, and, well, weapons come naturally to me. I've been working on using shuriken and kunai for long-range and I've even looked into bow and arrow usage, but none of that is really good close-range, and to have a balanced style like Kishi said, I need to handle myself long-range and close-range. So I've been looking into different kinds of close range weapons, and I figured I'd start by learning how to use a sword because there are already so many different kinds of swords and so many styles of sword play. I figure once I get down how to use all of the swords with as many styles as I can learn I'll move on to learning how to use some of the other close-range weapons." She ended her dialogue with a fast and efficient downward slash before methodically sliding the katana into its sheath on her hip.

The entire time Tenten was explaining her plan Sasuke watched the movements of the blade as if in a trance, when Tenten finished he finally lifted up his eyes and spoke, "Well alright then, would you mind if I started to learn with you…" Tenten tossed him a sword and got back into her beginner's stance, and began showing Sasuke the motions of the first kata.

X

Naruto stood before Kokei as he was explaining Naruto's next task, "Many people believe that the greatest advantage available, to we foxes is our skill in illusion. While that is very close to being true it is not entirely accurate. A skill that we value above even our ability to confuse all those around us is a skill that is invaluable to any pack animal. Through training from my father our clan has acquired a skill called the chakra no doki an ability that allows us to share chakra. To utilize this technique you must first fully understand your own chakra. You must be able to separate your yin chakra or mental energy from your yang chakra or physical energy. Once you can do that you must synchronize it with the chakra radiating outside of your partner. So I want you to begin by feeling out and utilizing your yin chakra and your yang chakra individually…"

Naruto had left most of his clones back in the training ground so he began to meditate and work on the technique on his own.

X

Shortly after returning from training with the eagles Hinata began wandering around Konoha by herself. She enjoyed these rare moments without any bodyguards looking over her shoulder, even if the most constant bodyguard was Naruto. She felt something for him, but even with that being said there were just some times when a girl needed to get her space. Of course she was also walking around in a henge to make sure that nobody recognized her so that she would not be surrounded by inquiring body guards. The eagles had suggested she learn the technique alongside the kawarimi to make sure she had a firm base for later techniques. At the moment she appeared to be a short woman in her late teens with long red hair and brown eyes. The last appearance one would look for in search of the Hyuga heiress.

As she was walking around the village she came across a quaint little book shop and decided to enter. She looked at all of the different books occasionally stopping to glance at a summary here or there, her legs taking her around the shop at times as if of their own will. As she circled the shop she came across a paperback book with an orange cover-art and the words 'Icha Icha Paradise' on the front. The author was listed as Jiraiya, which Hinata recognized was the same name that had revealed itself on Naruto's favorite book 'The Tales of a Gutsy Ninja' after they had learned of Naruto's heritage. 'I wonder if Naruto would like this.' Hinata thought to herself as she took the book up to the checkout counter. After giving the cashier 200 ryo for it she left the bookstore, book in hand.

As she began walking down the street again she looked back to the book she had just purchased. Curious she opened it up and began reading. Not too long into her reading her face exploded into a bright red blush. She kept thinking to herself that she needed to put the book away, she needed to put the book away, but no matter what she did or thought she just could not put down 'Icha Icha Paradise.' It was safe to say that Hinata was officially hooked at the age of eight on Jiraiya's smut.

X

Sakura sat in a chair at the library flipping through all manner of biological books and scrolls. She had three clones attempt to soak a leaf, three clones studying normal ijutsu, and a final three that were analyzing all the information they could find on Tsunade in an attempt to potentially recreate her immense strength. She already had a decent idea how it was done based on the information she could find; however, she was making sure she was one hundred percent sure through testing different theories and working out as many possibilities as she could. Yes, she had broken the unspoken rule between her friends about only using a max of ten bunshin, but she was personally irritated with her miniscule reserves and was dead set on overcoming that weakness. Besides chakra exhaustion was an enemy she knew she would have to learn to beat as a medic regardless.

The cats had very little to teach her, though they assured her that they would assist in any studies that she brought to them, and that if she was in a conflict where she needed their help they would gladly help. Of course, in the end she wasn't working to focus her shinobi arts around the cats. She also did not want to become strictly reliant on ijutsu, or suiton jutsu, or even reliant on the jutsu she was remaking that was Tsunade's. When she had large enough reserves she had plans to devote another trio of clones to genjutsu, but once again she did not want to become fully reliant on that either.

That is what found Sakura searching for information on her own here in the library, trying to find something that she could build off of to make her own, something that only she could do, that she could build a style around. As she was flipping through biology notes she came across a footnote about bones being stronger after the first time they've been broken compared to prior to the breakage. Sakura began sifting through all of the information she had before her, and found that it was more than just bone tissue that reacted this way. The whole premise of muscle development seemed to be based off of destruction and reconstruction of the original muscle cells, and after skin damage the new scar tissue was denser as well. It seemed the body was adapting to prevent repetitive injury; however, based on repetitive bone damage it seemed that the adaptive property was limited.

'This could be exactly what I've been looking for,' Sakura thought to herself, 'First, I break down the system that limits the adaptation, then I force the adaptation to go the way I want it to, then I push my body to the brink forcing it to adapt to the worst conditions. I think I even saw evidence of regenerative technique somewhere in here too. That would mean I could adapt to my enemy mid fight. This could be perfect, and as the saying goes the best offence is a good defense.'

X

Another year had passed and once again significant progress had been made. Every one of the summoning scrolls had been signed by each of their respective partners and progress was being made at an impressive pace. Each member of the group had mastered the streaming of at least one of the elements, and Sasuke had managed to complete the waterfall splitting exercise with both fire and lightning while Naruto was making progress with the exercise using all five primary elements, though such advancement had only been made through their over use of the kage bunshin which more often than not landed them in daily sessions with Sakura's ijutsu. She was far from gentle. Sakura was also working with Neji, Hinata, Tenten, Ino, and Shino to develop a means to fix Lee's chakra coils and they expected the surgery should be ready within the year. She was also working with Naruto and Tenten to develop a means to transplant the sharingan of Sasuke's fallen brethren throughout his body, and the headway on that was much further along than Lee's, due in part to the notes found in Orochimaru's bases, and Sakura suspected the first eye would be transplanted in the next two or three months.

Sakura was also developing a theory-along with Naruto, Sasuke, Shino, and Shikamaru-that it was in fact possible to fuse two elements without a bloodline limit, if one developed enough affinity with the two elements and the combined element. Unfortunately, until one of the twelve mastered two different elements the theory could not be tested. Many jutsu had also been developed by the group specifically for their use to optimize the usage of their surroundings, such as the Ninpo: Konoha Shuriken no jutsu, and the Ninpo: Shirukaba no jutsu. They had also come up with a means to weaponize paper shuriken through use of seals, and once one amongst them mastered the earth element to a degree where a forge could be made Tenten was ready to begin forging tools and weapons from scratch.

The team was advancing by leaps and bounds and overall it had been a productive year. Naruto found himself musing over this fact as he looked out over his surrogate family and watched them become even stronger from the tallest tree in the area. They would be classing up again soon and it would be time that they could all take the genin exams at the end of the year, and with everything going on he had a lot on his mind.

Finally he leapt from his perch and approached the center of the clearing, where after dispersing his own clones he called out, "Hey can everyone take a break for a second, I've got something to address."

Almost instantly the group began wrapping up whatever exercises they were partaking in and within ten minutes they were all situated in a circle surrounding Naruto, not dissimilar from the one they found themselves in the day Naruto and Sasuke found the truths of their pasts. Naruto took a deep breath and began, "We've had a productive year both in becoming stronger and in becoming closer. Personally I think right now we are the strongest people in the village under chunin and even there I'm sure we can compete. Probably, more importantly, at least to me we are the closest family in the entire village. You guys are my family and I couldn't ask for a better one. With that being said I kinda want you guys to be involved in this decision.

"All my life I've wanted to be Hokage so that the people of the village would respect me, acknowledge me, so that I would have a family. Now, though surrounded by you guys I feel like I don't need that anymore. Sure I still want to be Hokage, but now it's not nearly as important as being part of this family, so I'm asking y'all now: do you guys really think I should be Hokage?" Naruto finished calmly he did not care anymore, these people meant more to him than any dream, and besides he felt that this was the kind of decision that families made together.

There was utter silence after Naruto finished his statement, punctuated by shock, not one among their number could believe what they had just heard. Hinata was the first to awaken from her stupor, "Um, Naruto you realize that Mizuki-sensei told us not to eat the pretty looking mushrooms right?" She asked skeptically.

"What..?" Naruto asked not quite getting the subtle accusation.

"She's saying you're on something, and personally I think she's got to be right for you to be asking us a stupid question like that." Kiba elaborated.

"What?! I'm not on anything, I just honestly want your opinions!"

"Well then I'll say right now you should already know that you're the only alpha I'll answer too." Kiba said like it should have been obvious.

Sasuke leaned into Sakura and mumbled, "Alpha?"

"It's a reference to the canines, the leader of a pack is known as an alpha male." She said quickly.

"Ah, I see." He muttered before leaning out and listening back into the conversation.

"My response should be obvious too you big baka, no matter what I'm always going to choose you, and I know you've got what it takes. Even if you don't then that's what we're here for: to cover your bases." Hinata told him before moving in to hug him.

"Naruto I already trust you with my life, as well as the lives of my hive. I decided that much when you took an interest in me and my bugs all that time ago when most of our peers would avoid me like the plague. If I can trust you with that much then I can trust you with my family, both amongst my clan and those who are here. So I can certainly trust you with my village." Shino responded as emotionally as Shino gets, so about as emotional as when Kiba's feeling tired.

"Better you than me, man that would be troublesome." Shikamaru answered lazily.

"I thought you were already our leader, so why not the rest of the village? You seem good enough." Chouji said quickly shrugging his shoulders before returning to his chips.

Ino just shook her head as he turned to her and said, "We've already been through this, you should already know my answer is that you got my support, and my clans as soon as you need it."

"YOSH NARUTO-KUN IT WILL BE MY PERSONAL MISSION TO MAKE YOU HOKAGE. AND IF I CANNOT DO THAT THEN-" there was a crash as Lee was shoved face first into the dirt by Tenten before he really got going as was the trend when he was emotional about something.

"Well I think you've been doing good here, and who knows where I'd be if these two hadn't dragged me to lunch with you. If meeting you can make me this strong, what'll it do for the village? I think you know my answer. Besides we just might be able to really put our seals to use with you that high up." Tenten rationalized.

Neji was quiet for a moment, as he thought over everything he'd been researching with Hinata, while everyone looked at him waiting for his answer. Neji had not just been looking into taijutsu styles in their clan records. Finally he decided he had to make his thoughts known, "Naruto, many years ago you saved Hinata-nee-sama from being captured, putting the entire Hyuga clan in your debt. There was something else you did that night, though, something that saved the life of an individual within our clan. Based on the immediate repercussions of your actions ANBU arrived on the scene to apprehend the kidnapper, followed shortly by Hiashi-sama who arrived almost as quickly as the ANBU, which suggests that he may very well have been headed there to stop the Kumo shinobi himself. There was no way Hiashi-sama would have used anything less than deadly force in retribution for the man's crimes.

"Of course if Hiashi-sama did go about killing a diplomat from Kumo, then Kumo would have demanded retribution in the form of Hiashi-sama's own life. I've come to the conclusion that the Hyuga clan council would not have allowed our clan head to be executed in such a manner, and so would have offered up the only available scapegoat. My father Hyuga Hizashi would have died instead." Before he could continue his explanation Neji dropped to his knees and bowed to Naruto, "You saved my father that night. For that I am eternally grateful, and as such would trust no one better with leading my village and my clan, other than you."

Naruto was thrown off guard by the level of respect shown to him by Neji, and was just scratching his head, "Uh thanks for the trust Neji, I'm really honored. Now, uh, do you think you can get up, please? You know I'm not one for formalities." He responded nervously.

Neji just chuckled as he rose, "No you really aren't are you. Well my choice is clear."

Naruto nodded before he turned and looked at the next person on his list, "So how bout it Sakura?"

Sakura just smiled sweetly before saying, "My decision should be obvious, of course I want you to be Hokage. Now the next time you ask me I'm going to have to shove your face in the dirt for being an idiot. Are we clear on that?"

"Crystal." Naruto replied nervously, before regaining his composure before turning to the last member of their group, "Sasuke?"

Sasuke sighed and sounding a little disappointed he began, "Well I guess if I have to take orders from anyone I'd rather it be you than one of these other bakas within the village." He finished with a smirk.

Naruto could not help but to chuckle out a quick, "Teme," before moving on, "Well if that's the case then I guess we need to start getting ready for the year."

This halted most of the group who were about to get ready to go back to training, "What do you mean getting ready for the year Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"Well at some point in the coming school year we'll each have turned ten, which means at the end of the year we'll be allowed to take the genin exams. With that being said we need to decide our teams and get ready to start rigging the scores so that we can be on the teams that we know would work best. I also want to hand out positions for when I become Hokage."

"Positions?" Tenten asked confused.

"Of course. You didn't think that if I was gonna be in charge that I'd have nothing for you guys did you? Well the first team is gonna be obvious: Neji, Lee, and Tenten have already been working on that right?" and after a nod from the three he continued, "Well y'all are going to be a support team, acting as reinforcements since y'all seem like a light assault team fairly evenly balanced and perfect for going, hitting the enemy to provide breathing room for allies and getting yourselves and if necessary them out quickly. Neji I'm going to have you in charge of border patrols, policing outside the village. I also figure you'd do well as one of my guards when I need one given your skill, and I'd like you to remain involved in clan related affairs. You think that'd be a good fit for you?" After receiving a curt nod from Neji he moved on, "Tenten you'll be chief quartermaster managing all weapons supplies. I also want you to start up a research and development division."

"Sounds like fun." Tenten answered without prompting, a smile spread across her face.

"Which leaves you Lee, I'm going to put you in charge of heading the police department, and my second bodyguard, when I need one. You up for it?" Naruto challenged.

With such a challenge uttered Lee rose from the ground to reply, though in respect of Tenten's anger he did so sedately, "It would be an honor, Naruto-kun."

"Moving on then, the next team should be obvious…" Naruto began.

Shikamaru threw in his expectation, "Let me guess Ino-Shika-Cho."

"Precisely."

"Mendokuse." He sighed out before getting an earful from Ino.

Naruto chuckled before turning to Chouji, "Well while they're having a moment, I was wondering if you'd take up the responsibility of being in charge of the gates and all guards who stand at the checkpoints, you know chief of village defenses?"

Chouji smiled before humbly answering, "I'd be honored Naruto. I just hope I'm up to it."

Naruto just smiled back, "I'm positive you'll be perfect for the job. Now Ino I need you to stop ripping into Shikamaru so that I can give y'all your jobs." Ino just huffed at the order while Shikamaru sighed at the prospect of work, "Ino you're going to have to take over for your Dad and Ibiki as head of torture and interrogation. You think you can do it?"

Ino just brushed it off, "Easy as pie." She said unconcerned.

Naruto then turned to Shikamaru, "You're going to be my head tactician, Konoha won't move militaristically without a plan drawn by you got that?" Naruto more ordered than asked.

Shikamaru just sighed again before giving his answer, "Mendokuse, well I guess it could be worse. Fine, whatever you say boss."

"Good," Naruto then paused before continuing, "Well obviously they're going to take over for their Dads as a capture and interrogation squad, with that being said I'm also going to need Chouji to head a capture division of the ANBU, you up for that Chouji." After a quick nod Naruto moved on though seemingly less confidant, "Well that leaves two different teams that are going to be a little harder. One is going to be an infiltration and tracking squad and the other a frontlines assault squad. Kiba, and Shino are obviously going to be on the tracking because they work well together and while they are both strong their skill are better suited to tracking than combat." This got a nod from both mentioned trackers and Naruto continued, "Which leaves me, Hinata, Sasuke, and Sakura, and any one of us would fit on either squad even though Sakura would be best suited to the combat squad as a heavy hitter and a medic, even if she'd add an element of stealth to the other."

"Well you know that they'll probably seem the same synergy between Kiba and Shino so just leave the rest of the decision to Hokage-sama. You've already done plenty and we all work well together anyway." Hinata said, trying to keep Naruto from rushing a decision he had yet to finally make.

"You're probably right," Naruto said, though what he did not tell them was that regardless of the decision he was planning on doing as poorly as possible to keep anyone from figuring out that he had rigged everything , and more importantly to keep everyone from possibly being afraid of him, he still had his insecurities. "Well that doesn't mean I can't give you your jobs. Kiba I'm going to put you in charge of the ANBU hunter nin."

"Suits me just fine." Kiba said with a feral grin Akamaru yipping his agreement.

"Shino you've got whatever spy network that gets developed."

"I was under the impression that, that was already my responsibility, but thank you for the official, unofficial appointment." Shino accepted calmly.

"Sakura I want you in charge of the medical department."

"Sounds like a plan." She said in recognition.

"Hinata you'll be my Secretary of State if you will. If it's diplomatic it's got your name on it."

"Of course. I couldn't expect you to deal with anything as delicate as diplomacy." She said with a slight giggle.

He drew in a deep breath before turning to his best friend, "That just leaves you Sasuke. I know you've got my back so I want you in charge if anything happens to me, I trust you with that. Officially, though I want you to head the ANBU and be Jonin Commander other than myself you will have full reign of Konoha's military."

Sasuke nodded before approaching Naruto and finger shaking with him, something they hadn't done in years, before promising, "I'll always have your back. You can count on me."

"That feels good to know." Naruto said returning the gesture. "Well on another note I think we should start going to class ourselves and just leaving our clones here to train, seeing as right now we don't have specific physical goals to meet at the moment. Any objections?" After being met with none he continued, "Well that's all I got, anyone else want to add something?"

Chouji quickly stepped up looking excited about something, "Actually I have an idea that I want to get y'all's opinion on."

"Alright, go ahead Chouji." Naruto invited sounding slightly surprised, he hadn't actually thought that anyone did have anything to add, but hardly minded.

"Well I've been thinking, you live on your own right Naruto? And so do Sasuke, Tenten, and Lee? And then once Sakura graduates she will too, since her family plans on moving on after that. Plus all of us clan members will be allowed to at that point as well since we'll be adults, and even encouraged to do so, so that we can get a feel for it. Well I thought why don't we all work together to buy an apartment like building, you know and kinda live together like a family. It'd expand upon our closeness as a family and even add a little convenience in a way. So what do you think?"

Each member thought about it muttering to each other before Shino added in his two cents, "Well it would make it convenient to keep information and secrets recorded and within the group. We could construct a secret compartment to contain the vital information we gather and create. It would also make it easier to live on our own when we're together."

Neji was quick to counter, "And how do you plan to pay for something like that? The land, the building, the construction? Let alone getting the money in a timely enough manner to have it built by the time you graduate, as I assume that would be the time we would be planning on moving in? These things can't be done on the spur of the moment."

Chouji looked insulted, "Hey I thought of that! I was planning on using the kage bunshin, and henge to have us take on multiple 'part-time' jobs within the village to start building up funds. It would be less taxing than training so safer, and it would still serve as a chakra expansionary exercise while getting money at the same time. If we all throw in like fifteen clones for two thirds of a day with different jobs of varying degrees of pay I'm sure we'd be able to get enough money in no time. Plus that puts more ears to the ground digging for information while they're working."

"Plus we could use the clones and build the things ourselves as well which would save on money and time, especially since I can make a small army of construction workers by myself, and combine that with ninjutsu and we've got quite the building crew. I like it, so let's put it to a vote. All in favor?" Ultimately it was unanimously decided to proceed with, even Neji voting for the plan, and soon they each had dozens of clones each with their own identities looking for new jobs, though this cut their training teams down to fractions of what they once were. While there was Naruto, who had built up his reserves to the point that he had upwards of fifty different clones looking for jobs and still had at least twice that training-partially thanks to his synchronization training with Kokei allowing him to tap into the Kyubi's yokai-there were still those like Tenten who only had fifteen clones job hunting and five training-Sakura, Ino and Hinata barely having more than that-and Lee who still could not even make a single clone even with all of his progress in the development of his chakra usage, though he was fully prepared to do some of the lifting once the ground breaking began.

As Naruto watched his friends return to their training he began to go back to his, but before he could turn away in the direction of his little section of their training ground for training what he had to do as an individual, he received an influx of memories from a clone that he had been using to cause pranks and ultimately stir up chaos in the village so that the villagers too would see him. His smile turned into a frown. Though it felt great to have this family surrounding him, and, whether they admitted it or not, loving him, it did not entirely numb the pain of listening to those who he vowed to protect with every part of his being refer to him as nothing more than "that thing." He shook his head and took off to throw himself into his training to hopefully ignore or forget the insult.

Naruto was completely unaware that most of his family had noticed his discomfort, even though he had tried to keep them from noticing. Each one of them, them being: Hinata, Sasuke, Neji, Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Ino, and Shikamaru; had thought about pressing the matter. The only thing stopping them was a consensus among the entire group that they would respect Naruto's wishes on this matter, and if he wanted to talk about it they would wait for him to come to them. Few of the members of the group agreed with the plan, knowing he would never talk about it, however, they understood that at the same time to press the matter could alienate their friend and so they left it alone for the time being.

X

Naruto sat between Sakura and Sasuke, with him and Sakura arriving after everyone else in the class leaving only the seats they now occupied open, forcing them to take those seats. Not that any one of the three was really putting up much of a fight over it, because as much as it may have interfered with Naruto's plan of anonymity he felt comfortable between the two people who had become like a brother and sister to him.

While he thought on that he fiddled with the goggles that now clung to his forehead where his hitaite would one day go. Hinata had given them to him as a Christmas present this past year and they were a prized possession of his much like his new orange jumpsuit with blue shoulder pads he had gotten from Sasuke, and the orange cargo pants that Kiba had given him. He had yet to where any of the outfit because he still needed to modify it with some seal designs that he and Tenten had developed, of which Tenten had given him temporary versions to apply to the clothes as her Christmas gift that he was now using, but he figured with the free time he had from actually going to school he might as well get on that after class let out and to remind him he would wear those clothes specifically.

Suddenly, as he was playing with his goggles a thought crossed his mind, and he leapt to implement it before the chakra signature that he felt coming from the staff lounge to their classroom arrived. "Well time to make a good impression!" He shouted as he went on the move. This caught all eight of his friends in the room by surprise and they could not help but call out to him in either curiosity or confusion as he began to put a plan into action, "Don't worry you'll see." He yelled back as he got his tools out.

X

Umino Iruka was walking down the hallway headed to his first class, one which he had just been assigned only one week prior, and which he had been assured that his old friend Mizuki would be instructing alongside him for the coming year. Unfortunately, Mizuki had fallen ill with the flu just three days prior, and had yet to recover leaving Iruka to meet his new class alone. Worst of all, however, was the presence of one particular member of his new class.

"I can't believe Sandaime-sama would give me the class that Naruto was in. He's way too much for anyone to handle, not to mention…well maybe Daikoku was right. Maybe if I just ignore him he'll go away." He stopped his musings as he approached the classroom door, and noticed a board eraser wedged in the frame, "Cute." He said to himself as he triggered the trap.

X

Iruka slid open the door letting the eraser fall in front of him, "Alright who did this?" He yelled at the silent class, before looking directly in front to see the object of his frustration standing there grinning up at him like a fox, "Of all the mischief…" he said as he stepped into the classroom…and was immediately taken off his feet by a strand of wire which had got him by his ankle and yanked him upside down. Relying on his training he plucked a kunai from one of his pockets and used his upward momentum to slice the blade across the wire freeing him as he performed a backflip to right himself…only to find the floor greased with some sort of lubricant as his feet slid out from under him upon landing.

This was met by an uproar of laughter from the troublemaker who set the elaborate trap as he said, "Ah I man I really got you Sensei." On the inside Naruto was thinking to himself, 'Alright let's see how you react.' At first Iruka looked like he was going to punish Naruto severely for his actions; however, as Naruto moved to prepare for the typical punishment he'd seen, as most teachers just ignored him, he was shocked when Iruka stopped him.

"No Naruto, take your seat." He said in a hate filled tone. This surprised Naruto, and after a second it began to sting him, it felt a lot worse to get this feeling head on rather than through a memory. So with his head hung low Naruto returned to his seat sulking on the reaction Iruka-sensei had given him as Iruka introduced himself.

X

Iruka was lecturing on the basics of chakra, information that Hinata and Sakura had tutored him to the bone on supplementing what he learned from his clones so he was not too worried about the material. With that being said Naruto decided that now was the perfect time to get some kind of reaction out of his sensei. He was currently pretending to sleep, which he was sure would irk his sensei. He had also set up another prank just in case the sleeping was not enough.

As Iruka began going in depth on the connection between mental energy and chakra he stopped his lecture mid-sentence. This made it clear that he had finally noticed his sleeping student. Naruto could hear Iruka's footsteps as he made his way up to him. Iruka stopped right by his desk and Naruto opened his left eye an unnoticeable crack watching as Iruka raised the text book over his head in fury. 'Finally,' Naruto thought, 'Finally, he'll take some kind of notice.' However as Naruto waited for Iruka to let the book fall, the fury on Iruka's face shifted first to thought, then acceptance, then lastly spite before he lowered the book and made a move to return to the front of the class. Naruto was not quite done yet, so taking a breath to calm himself after that disappointment, he stood up and said, while pointing at the clock, "Look Iruka-sensei class time is over!"

Iruka glanced at the clock and sure enough it said 1500 "huh, so it's that time already. Alright everyone that's all for today." He said as he began walking down the steps and out of the classroom.

As soon as Iruka was out the door, Naruto rushed down the steps to set the clock right again, he knew Iruka was standing just outside the door, and was hoping that he would finally get a reaction out of him that was more than simple spite.

As Iruka slammed the door open to see Naruto changing the clock, he looked at Naruto showing no emotion beyond hatred as he said, "Return to your seat Naruto, we're continuing the lecture."

X

Iruka took the students outside to perform a test to see how far their ninja skills had developed, and after promising them that they would not be graded he asked for Sasuke to perform a demonstration of the Bunshin no jutsu. He knew that the other teachers had praised the Uchiha's skill as near flawless for such an age, but Iruka wanted to see it for himself. Naturally, Iruka was beyond impressed as not only did Sasuke perform a perfect bunshin, but, and Iruka almost missed this part-had he been any less skilled he might have-he also managed to create a second bunshin a short distance away, hidden within a tree and replace himself with it. To say Iruka was impressed was an understatement as while he was capable of such an act the ease, speed and fluidity with which the student performed it should've been beyond him. This intrigued Iruka.

As the students' were fawning over Sasuke's skill Naruto leapt forward challenging the Uchiha. Iruka recalled the two had a history of sparring against one another earlier in the academy and doing relatively well in the matches. He also noted interestingly enough that Naruto momentarily glanced in the direction of the real Sasuke hiding in the tree, and that said Uchiha flinched slightly as if in preparation. Both of Sasuke's doppelgangers got into fighting positions, but Iruka and Sasuke were both pretty sure that it would be just for show as it was clear Naruto knew where Sasuke was, unlike most of the students though there were a small few who noticed as well as far as he could see which further impressed Iruka, so clearly Naruto would bypass the clones and go straight to the source.

However unexpectedly Naruto lunged himself at the first clone in nothing that even remotely resembled a taijutsu attack, it barely looked like he was brawling or even trying to tackle Sasuke. It was completely pathetic as far as Iruka was concerned. As the clone dissipated in a cloud of smoke, the other backed away and antagonized Naruto further, while the students laughed at Naruto for his mistake, even though some of them would have truly been fooled compared to Naruto's act. One of the students Iruka was pretty sure noticed Sasuke's actual maneuver, pointed out the seemingly obvious statement that the remaining clone must thereby be the real Sasuke, though Iruka had a feeling she knew otherwise as did he. Naruto then continued to, seemingly intentionally, make a fool of himself as he threw a sloppy kick, that looked to be far too much of a struggle to perform for someone with his apparent ineptitude, at the remaining Sasuke which then too burst into a cloud of smoke.

"Wrong again." Sasuke stated from up in the tree with a believable smirk on his lips as he leapt down. Iruka saw though that the smirk was not the only show of emotion on Sasuke's face as Iruka also noticed an eyebrow raised a fractional degree in confusion. Clearly, Sasuke had not expected the impromptu fight to be so simple, and Iruka had to agree based on the information that he had, but he tried not to dwell on it, as long as the brat was not getting out of control.

This display of ineptitude was quickly followed by another as Naruto stepped forward, seemingly trying to prove himself capable, and began performing the hand signs for the clone jutsu. Iruka noticed as he felt Naruto molding his chakra that it seemed like he was fighting his body trying to force it to put too much chakra into the technique while his instincts were trying to put the perfect amount. For a second Iruka thought that instincts would win out and Naruto would perform the jutsu properly, though he found that to be a typically backwards concept, but nonetheless in the end Naruto proved capable of screwing it up and before him appeared a dead looking clone.

The class surrounding the boy began to burst out laughing though there were a fair few who looked on in more worry than amusement, and then there was the Uchiha who looked downright furious, though whether it was at Naruto for making such a large fool out of himself or at the class at large for laughing at Naruto Iruka could not tell. The fact that Iruka had a feeling that either possibility was likely was yet another thing that had grabbed Iruka's interest in the last few minutes. However, Iruka knew that he had to reaffix his mask of loathing for the boy quickly lest he actually feel bad for him, and after doing so and dismissing Naruto from the exercise, Iruka continued the class with their test.

X

As soon as class let out Naruto speed off deep into the forest around their training ground to work by himself, this had the others worried as none of them had expected Naruto to act the way he was acting and they had even fewer expectations that he would react the way he was now. Hinata went to try and talk to him, but there was no conversation to be had. Dozens, nearly hundreds of clones were standing around working on the five different nature affinities, perfecting the rasengan, coordinating taijutsu attacks, enhancing chakra reserves and control, modifying his jumpsuit and goggles, and in the center was Naruto by himself who would shift between working on drawing out and stabilizing Kyuubi's chakra and performing basic stationary exercises like push-ups, sit ups, squats and the like. In the chaos Hinata knew there would be no way to speak with Naruto so she just stood by watching him as he worked himself to the bone, making sure that he did not kill himself and if he did go beyond Kyuubi's ability to fix him she would be there to help. She would always be there, and as much as she knew he knew it, she wished he would take more advantage of it sometimes, especially times like now.

X

Sakura and Sasuke had offered to take over for Hinata on Naruto watch, after Neji had offered to walk her home, but she turned down both offers. She knew if Kiba and Shino had not had to leave to help out at home they would have done the same thing; however, she knew that Naruto needed her right now whether he knew it or not, and agreement be damned she was not going to let him sulk about it.

Thus the two found themselves walking together silently back from the training ground headed to the Hyuga compound. Naruto had yet to say a word, having barely even acknowledged her presence as she joined him on his walk home, and Hinata thought soon she was going to have to say something. Luckily at that point they were coming across the Ichiraku ramen bar and she knew that would surely cheer him up.

Teuchi was taking the awning down and looked to be closing up for the night, but one glance at his favorite customer and he had other ideas, "Hey Naruto, what's wrong?"

Hinata did not know how to answer, but before she could Naruto managed out a half-hearted, "Nothing."

"Want some ramen?" The old cook asked offhandedly.

"Nah, I don't have any money."

"You can pay me back when you're rich." Teuchi countered without interest. Hinata had to smile at knowing Naruto would have had someone there for him right now even if she had not been.

As Teuchi was making the noodles Hinata decided it was time to lay her foot down, "Naruto you can't let Iruka-sensei get you down. You know you're better than that you don't need him."

Naruto looked at her, not livening up in the least, "It's not about Iruka-sensei. Nothing's wrong Hinata-chan I'm fine."

"You don't honestly expect me to believe that do you? Maybe someone else, but there's no way I'd fall for that! How long have we known each other? Five years? Six? I lose track sometimes. And you honestly think you can fool me that easily? And if not Iruka then what?"

"It's everybody, this whole village. Whenever they look at me all they see is the fox, and all they feel is pain and hatred for it because it's the reason why they don't have their loved ones anymore. I just thought Iruka-sensei might be different. That he might understand how it feels to grow up without your parents and maybe he'd be able to look past it, but I guess I was wrong. Of course I was wrong the stupid thing killed his parents after all!" As Naruto poured his heart out to the girl Teuchi could not help, but sigh at the boy's despair, he figured he would have to have a talk with Iruka the next time he came in for ramen.

"Then why do you act like a fool? You know if you showed your true skills Iruka would be too impressed to be mad at you. Show him respect and he will do the same in return."

"If he doesn't attack me out of fear first." Naruto grumbled under his breath.

"So you're just going to give up! You're not going to try at all?! Naruto I'm ashamed of you, in all the time I've known you the last thing that you've ever been was a quitter!"

Naruto waved his hands in front of his face in surrender attempting to quell Hinata's fury, "It's not just that Hinata. I promise. It's just to be where I need to be on the teams I have to reasonably be at the bottom of the class."

Hinata's expression softened, "So you've figured out the last of the assignments?" they both knew it was not a question.

"Well yeah, but I don't really like it kind of, and saying it out loud will just make it more real, but it feels like that plan will be for the best." Naruto said sullenly.

"Alright, but you better stop digging your hole."

"But Hinata-"

"No, I'm not going to hear it, I want no buts Naruto, if you want to continue this self-destructive behavior I'm going to tell the others and we're going to do something to stop you."

"Hinata please just trust me," And as Hinata was moving to deny that request Naruto grabbed her hand, and said quietly looking at her with his most calm and resigned face, "Please Hina-chan."

After looking at him for a few seconds, and at how rarely mature he looked in those few seconds she could not help herself, but to give in, "Alright Naruto, I'll let it go for now, but if things get worse then I'm butting in, you got that."

"Hai, hai," he said in plication as their food arrived, and they began eating in silence, neither noticing their hands still locked together.

X

The next day in class Iruka had the students display their effectiveness in shuriken jutsu. Immediately Naruto and Kiba were jumping up and down volunteering the chance to prove themselves. Iruka was used to this behavior and so immediately passed them up seeking out one of his less active students, "Shino, show us what you can do."

Shino had been preparing a range of tool aided jutsu for his insects at the suggestion of Kiho; however, his family had a reputation and so politely refused Iruka's suggestion of him making a demonstration. With such rejection Iruka simply fell back on calling on Sasuke certain that Sasuke would be both successful and willing to perform. Sasuke did not disappoint and displayed perfect control with the technique. At Sasuke's success Iruka heard Naruto grumble about the arrogance with which the Uchiha performed his jutsu so when Naruto immediately volunteered to go next Iruka allowed it if only to shut the blond up for a moment, unfortunately he was not prepared for just how badly Naruto wound up performing, as one of the throwing stars came dangerously close to nicking him in an area that he personally held quite a fondness, leading his class to break out in uproarious laughter, though a couple members of the class had to raise their eyebrows in utter confusion at the sheer ineptitude that Naruto was displaying.

X

It had been about a week, and Sasuke was beginning to become fed up with Naruto's present behavior. He had developed beyond simply displaying ineptitude and ignoring them, and he was now trying to hang around no name students, that Sasuke was sure would be unlikely to ever graduate the academy as full fledged shinobi, and ditching. If things continued on their present course he was pretty sure he was going to pound some sense into the blond.

When Iruka-sensei arrived he skipped over his typical show of making a roll call and went straight to demanding, "Has anyone seen Naruto!?" It was sad that Sasuke could not say that he had.

Two of the no name civilians that Sasuke had previously been thinking about immediately and suspiciously spoke up, "Nope, didn't see him." Sasuke was certain they were lying, so when Shikamaru leaped up to contradict them he was far from surprised.

"Naruto went into the back hills!" He yelled out.

"Shikamaru!?" "What're you talking about?" The two civilians cried out trying to stop Shikamaru from giving them away which caused Sasuke to grind his teeth in anger but he knew he could do nothing right this moment.

"In the back hills?" Iruka asked curiously.

"To look for corpses right Hibachi?" Shikamaru stated interrogating one of the two civilians, this just kept getting fishier and fishier in Sasuke's opinion. "Your tricks are annoying." that clinched it Sasuke was going to need Sakura to keep him from murdering something though after he thought that the protection might need to be stepped up to Naruto instead of Sakura he quickly realized that the target might very well be the blond for falling for something so stupid.

"We're having study hall today!" Iruka yelled out before quickly running out of the classroom most likely to find his missing student, as the class muttered amongst themselves in confusion.

As Iruka left the classroom, Sasuke spiked his chakra a signal that the group had set up to call for a meeting or, if the one who does it is not present, to call for backup.

X

Iruka was jumping through the trees in search of his wayward pupil, thinking back on how one of his fellow instructors had informed him of the battle, which had taken place in the back hills. Luckily it did not take him long for him to catch up to the young blond as he landed on a tree branch above the child's position. He called out to Naruto, who seemed to be looking for something, as he jumped down to stand in front of him, "Naruto!"

"Sensei?" Naruto responded curious by his instructor's presence, he had felt him approach a while back, but that did not tell him why he was there.

"What are you doing?! Get back to the academy now!" Iruka demanded.

"I won't do it!" I won't go to the academy anymore!" Naruto said having finally grown fed up with his instructor.

"There are still dangerous people here!" Iruka said in a concerned tone

"I won't go back even if you beg me to!"

"Do as I say. I'm your homeroom teacher!"

"Shut up! Why do you only act like my teacher at times like these?!" Naruto yelled at him finally getting at the root of his frustrations, "You don't understand my feelings. Even if I go back to the academy things won't be any different. I'm always alone. I'm always left out. Nobody cares about me! But this time it'll be different. If I bring back something from the battle, everyone will accept me as their friend! If I do that i won't have to be alone anymore! I won't have to experience that feeling ever again! That's why I'm going to find and bring something back!"

Naruto knew he shouldn't feel that way, not when he did have a family, and they did have his back. They praised him, and they respected him. He just could not help it when he was surrounded by so many others who received praise from so many other people, and sent so much disgust towards him. Sometimes it was just so hard to overlook all of that, and remain focused on the love that he felt. Besides he knew Iruka was right there were still some bad people here, and he needed to figure out why, and though he might not be able to beat them he at least needed to figure out how to get rid of them by getting rid of their target. For that he needed to get away from Iruka so he could begin searching.

Iruka sighed, and looked at Naruto with a pained look on his face, before trying to counter him, "You've got to understand, no matter what your reasons may be, as your instructor, I cannot allow you to go to such a dangerous area."

"You really don't understand my feelings." Naruto mumbled to himself, before slipping his hand into the hitsuji hand seal, "Ninpo: Oiroke no jutsu." he called out transforming into an extremely attractive female young adult version of himself which immediately knocked Iruka unconscious from a nosebleed, before Naruto returned to his normal form and took off into the woods.

X

"How could he be so reckless, so irresponsible?! What the hell was he thinking?!" Sasuke rampaged as the group arrived at training ground 12.

"I'm sure he's got his reasons..." Hinata tried to defend Naruto from his best friend.

"Sasuke's right, this was the dumbest thing that Naruto could have possibly done!" Kiba growled out.

"He hasn't talked to us about any of this, not since Iruka-sensei took over our class." Sakura observed.

"Speaking of which I thought you had this under control!" Sasuke said pointing at Hinata.

"Don't you dare start speaking to Hinata-nee-sama that way Uchiha!" Neji warned stepping between his cousin, and Sasuke.

"That's quite enough Neji, and Sasuke calm down. Naruto said you were in charge when he wasn't present, and you can't lead like this" Shikamaru said trying to calm down the quarreling members of their group.

"Shikamaru's right if we don't get our heads on straight something might happen to Naruto before we can get to him." Ino threw in with Chouji nodding in agreement though he had his arms spread ready to get in a stance to physically restrain his friends if the situation came to that.

Sasuke sighed before nodding in agreement, "You're right, besides it's Naruto that I need to rip into."

"Trust me you're not alone Sasuke." Hinata, and Sakura agreed.

"Ino, Shino do either of you have an idea where the baka is?" Sasuke asked.

"I know he's about mid ways to the summit of the back hills, and his running away from Iruka-sensei who stopped moving a few minutes ago. I can also feel three chakra signatures in the area that are higher than Iruka-sensei's though that is not the best representation of fighting capability." Ino informed him.

"Maybe, but it's bad enough, Shino?" Sasuke said continuing with the debriefing.

"I have some bugs in the woods that have sighted him, but I'll need to get close to be able to follow their lead." Shino said.

"Well Naruto said that each of us are at least as capable as the majority of genin in the village, and we're working on home territory. I would have to agree with Naruto's assessment. With that being said if all twelve of us work together with Iruka-sensei we should be able to get rid of these invaders, especially if we hit them one at a time. We could also figure out why there are here, and get it out of their reach forcing them to give up. Though we will probably have to cancel our clones to better deal with them." Shikamaru informed Sasuke giving his advice.

"Well if we're going to do anything, we're going to have to do it quickly, and we're going to need to get there to do so. There's little point in figuring out our angle of attack this far away with this little bit of information. Shikamaru, you and Sakura are with me, the rest of you pair up one of you needing to have flight capability, we're going after our Baka Hokage." Sasuke ordered finally starting to sound like a leader.

Kiba paired up with Shino, while Ino paired with Tenten, Hinata with Chouji, and Lee with Neji. Together Neji, Hinata, Tenten, Shino, and Sasuke each performed the five hand signs before calling out, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Sasuke summoned a Hawk the size of a small house, Shino a beetle the size of a cart horse that was a deep blue like the sea, Tenten a large bat about the size as Shino's beetle and was oddly enough black on one side and white on the other, Neji had summoned an owl on par with Sasuke's that was a bright gold color, and Hinata had summoned an eagle the same size, but was white as snow.

"Katahoru do you think you can fly myself, Shikamaru, and Sakura here out to those out there as quickly as possible?" Sasuke requested of the large brown and gold streaked bird as he pointed to the back hills.

"You shame me with your doubt Sasuke-sama, we will be there as fast as lightening." Katahoru claimed dismissing the Uchiha's doubt as he knealt to allow the children on his back.

"Jemuzu Reiesu at your service Shino-sama." The beetle said in an excited voice.

"Can you take us and keep up with them." Shino asked simply.

"Of course Shino-sama! Climb aboard!" The beetle said to which Shino and Kiba simply hopped up on the beetle's carapace without another word.

"The name's Hekomi, I'm guessin' you're that gaki Tenten who signed that contract with Kishi. Well I'm warning, I'm not going to be a freakin' pack animal especially not for someone who associates herself with owls." The strange twin colored bat growled at her.

"If you got a problem with me signing the contract with Kishi you take it up with him, until then you're going to have to deal with me, and I need your help. So you're either going to help, or I'm going to call someone else and send you back to the big bat with a bad report, so what's it going to be?" Tenten demanded, having heard from Kishi that many of the bats were less than friendly and often challenging his rule.

Hekomi chuckled, "Hm, gaki you got spunk, fine I'll help your punk ass out, but this is your only freebie, next time if you can't give me a good reason to help I'm leavin' it up to luck. Now get on before I change my mind." with that Ino, and Tenten hopped up.

"Oikakeru, Neji-sama. I suggest you and your friend hop on before we lose track of your friends." The owl advised Neji, while introducing herself. Neji simply nodded while he and Lee followed the instruction.

"I am Joji Hinata-hime, I suggest that you and your friend hurry so we may be off my lady." The eagle informed Hinata and Choji as he bowed to her to allow her access.

"Arigato, Joji," Hinata said leading Chouji up.

"Shikamaru you and Choji leave behind a clone to look for some reinforcements within the village. I suggest Kakashi Hatake. The rest of you cancel your clones now, and let's get going." Sasuke ordered from Katahoru's back.

"Hai!" His comrades called back just before they took to the sky.

X

As soon as Naruto had gotten far away from Iruka-sensei he summoned up about twenty kage bunshin that began scouring the forest in search. "There's gotta be something that, that Taki kunoichi left behind for her teammates. That would be the only reason that they would still be here since one of them has already been captured and the village has her body. Not too mention the patrols would be looking for them now. There would be no other reason for them to stay." He mumbled to himself throughout his search. Luckily it did not take him long before one of his bunshin brought him a kunai with a not attached to it, which Naruto removed to analyze.

As soon as he did so he knew that he had found what he, and his village's enemies were trying to find. It seemed that the kunoichi had copied the patrol patterns of the village on a piece of paper, and upon her discovery had left it somewhere for her teammates. Once he was sure of what he had he dismissed his clones and turned to head back towards the village so that he could inform the old man.

Shortly after he began running for the village he was stopped in his tracks by three shinobi wearing standard shinobi gear, though it looked slightly different compared to Konoha's. Of course since they wore Takigakure that went without saying.

"Hey kid," One of them called to him.

Naruto decided to play stupid, "What? Who are you?"

"Hand that kunai over nice and easy." The same shinobi ordered him.

"Yeah right. The only person who's getting this thing is Hokage-sama, I've seen what's wrapped up in here, that's sensitive information. Hardly something I'd just hand over to anyone especially not shinobi from a foreign village." Naruto responded displaying at least a little knowledge of the situation.

"I see it looks like we have to take it by force." The same shinobi said as all three of them drew the katana from the sheaths on their backs.

"Come and get it." Naruto said holding up a hitsuchi hand seal, "Tengin: Haremu no Jutsu!" Naruto was not great at genjutsu, but Kokei had made sure that he knew at least some as it was still a big part of being part of the fox's family, so he had made three of his own one of which happened to be this genjutsu version of one of his other techniques. Of course since it was a genjutsu it could be a lot more detailed, doing things that he refused to actually do.

Unfortunately, shortly after he used the technique his opponents growled in anger before the pricked their fingers on their katana, and then ripped off their face masks to reveal that all three to be kunoichi. Naruto had to sweatdrop at his terrible luck as the one who seemed to be the leader spoke to him in a tone that was clearly doing its best to restrain her anger, "A rather impressive technique kid. I'd even wager that against the right opponent it would be extremely effective. Too bad for you you'll never get the opportunity to find out." She roared lunging at him.

Naruto dodged the initial slash, and moved to a direction where each of them were still in front of him. He then pulled out a paper shuriken. One of the kunoichi saw the toy in the kid's hand, and snickered out, "Ah it looks like he wants to play."

"I'll show you playing." Naruto mumbled to himself as he let the 'toy' fly towards the mocker. None of the three thought anything of the toy and so none of them moved until they saw it dig into its target's chest. "There are seals specially placed on these 'toys,'" Naruto remarked as he spat out the last word, "They are twice as sharp as a metal shuriken and just as durable." he continued as he slipped his hands into his pockets swiping over a containment seal to pull out three more in each hand, which he then let fly before performing a couple short hand signs, "Ninpo: Kage Shuriken Bunshin no Jutsu!" he called out as the six shuriken turned into sixty.

One of the Taki kunoichi used a quick kawarimi to escape the rain of shuriken, while the leader was out of the primary angle of attack and so managed to deflect all of the ones that came her way. Unfortunately, the one who mocked his toys was not so lucky, and while she managed to use her katana to deflect all, but one tenth of the attack sent her way. Hidden by the cloud of his attack Naruto crouched down to the ground and began performing more hand seals before quietly saying, "Ninpo: Shirukaba no Jutsu." he then began performing six more hand seals and with each hand seal his blue chakra began digging into the ground carving a seal into the earth. When he was done he placed his palm on the ground over his seals and said, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu."

By the time he was done with his seals he looked up to see his attack finished and his two visible opponents were beginning to converge on his position. "Not bad gaki, but your gonna have to do a lot better if you plan to do anything in this world." The main target of his attack goaded.

"Very well," Naruto said before holding up a half-hitsuji seal, "Katsu." he muttered quietly, causing all of the shuriken that he sent hurling at his opponent to detonate creating an impressive explosion, which covered the screams of the one caught in said explosion as her team leader covered her face to shield it from the flames. Each of the paper shuriken had been made out of paper not bombs.

As the explosion cleared to leave behind nothing left of the girl, but a charred corpse, Naruto heard the cry of the Taki kunoichi who had used the kawarimi to escape his attack, "BASTARD! I'M GONNA KILL YOU FOR THAT YOU DAMN GAKI!"

However as the katana slash came down on his previous position it met with nothing except a log as Naruto used a quick silent kawarimi of his own to escape the very visible attack. From the branch that he now stood on overlooking the battleground, he once again held up his half-hitsuji hand seal and quietly spoke, "Kai."

As soon as the words left his lips a grand fireball spat from the Earth and engulfed the kunoichi that had just attacked him, leaving Naruto with only one opponent. He quickly did a few more hand seals, before calling out, "Ninpo: Konoha Shuriken no Jutsu!" he said releasing a storm of leaves from the surrounding trees hardened and sharpened by his chakra, as he turned to flee into the forest, "Konohagakure no Jutsu." he muttered as he completely blended in with the leaves covering his escape. As he fled the scene he had to hold back the tears coming to his eyes at the destruction he had just caused, and swallow the bile rising to his throat at the thought of his first kill. He used the synchronization technique that Kokei taught him to slightly tap into the Kyuubi's chakra, to use it to deaden his emotions. He was not out of the woods just yet.

X

"Did you see that?" Sasuke called to his friends.

"Sasuke if I was back at the academy I could have seen that." Hinata responded dryly.

"If I was back at the academy I would have felt that chakra discharge." Ino said in exasperation at the blast from their friend and leader.

"Sasuke..." Sakura muttered to the Uchiha putting a hand to his back.

Sasuke knew exactly what the other was trying to convey, "Right. Alright everyone it's time we split up. Lee, Sakura, Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino, and Kiba take to the ground and start searching from there. The rest of us will continue to search from the air. Spike your chakra when you find him." Sasuke ordered.

He received his affirmation from his friend before they leapt the short distance to the tree tops, since they were flying close to the trees in case something bad happened. Lee began traveling by tree branch, while the other five academy students made their way to the forest floor where they each summoned a mount that sped them through the forest, Kiba actually going so far as to summon an entire pack of dogs to aid in the search.

X

The Juuni were not the only ones to spot Naruto's display. As soon as Iruka saw it he shifted direction speeding straight towards it and hopefully towards his student. After some time of tree hopping he felt Naruto nearby and called out to him, "Naruto!"

Naruto heard his sensei's call, and immediately shifted his direction towards him, "Sensei!" He called back before tripping over a ledge. He used his sharpened senses and a few bursts of chakra to limit his rolls and land for the most part on his feet.

"Naruto are you alright?" Iruka asked his student who simply looked back with a tired expression.

"He won't be for long!" The last Taki kunoichi cried out as she sent half a dozen shuriken towards the two before using the kage shuriken bunshin technique herself turning the six into sixty.

Naruto roared out, "I WON'T LET YOU HARM MY SENSEI!" He said before relinquishing even more control to the Kyubi and let loose a roar that dispersed the shuriken. Naruto then used the cloak that was forming around him to pick up Iruka with his tail and speed off into the forest.

"Naruto!" Iruka cried out in surprise as his student fled the scene with him.

X

Ino immediately felt the rise in the Kyuubi's chakra affecting Naruto, and nudged her mount's mane in the direction of the energy, "This way Seishin hurry!"

"Hai!" The large white stallion responded as he followed the direction and tripled his gait.

X

"Naruto you need to calm down. Naruto!" Iruka said finally getting through to him as they stopped in a clearing. As the boy put him down, he let loose the flood gates unable to control himself any longer. First he puked out the last of his breakfast then tears began falling from his eyes uncontrollably. Iruka began patting his shoulder confused by the outburst, but trying to comfort his student nonetheless. "Naruto..?"

"I killed them Iruka-sensei! I brutally murdered them! I'm a monster! I'm worse than the villagers think I am!" He said between his tears unable to control his emotions any longer.

Iruka was overcome with the emotions that Naruto was confessing to him, and they simply proved the conclusion that he had come to during his search. Naruto was just like him, he was not a monster, he was just a boy. "Naruto look at me." He said quietly and calmly. Once he had the boy's attention he said, "Naruto you are not a monster. You may have killed some of those ninja, but you did it to protect yourself and your home. That doesn't make you a monster, if anything it makes you a hero. If anyone tells you differently then they can answer to me. I'm sorry for the way I've treated you these last few weeks." Iruka told him.

"Sensei?" Naruto looked at his instructor in slight confusion, before he saw the recognition in his eyes, "Sensei!" He yelled out embracing the older man.

"Ah isn't this cute. Too bad for you, but thanks to your brat of a student you're going to die now." The last Taki kunoichi informed them as she finally caught up to her. "Katon: Karura!"

X

Each one of the Konoha Juuni had finally caught up to the student and instructor pair just to see their opponent launch her attack. At the sight of the threat to their leader each of them prepared an attack of their own to hopefully protect their leader and friend, or in the worse case scenario to kill his killer. They needn't have worried.

X

"Doton: Doryuuheki no Jutsu" All parts of the battle heard the call as a dog carved wall of Earth rose up to stop the flames. Once the flames died down and the wall was dropped the silver haired user of the technique leapt towards the last Taki Kunoichi with a ball of lightning in his hand, "Raiton: Raikiri!" he called out, and with that the battle ended. The academy not in plain view of the chunin and jonin fled the scene while Kakashi approached Iruka.

"Kakashi? What are you doing out here?" Iruka asked.

"Your students informed me that you were out here chasing a student. I'm glad to see you're alright." He said before the three turned and began to make their way back to the village.

X

The end of the day saw Iruka and Naruto speaking with one another at the Academy playground with the sun setting behind them. Iruka had reported to the Hokage informing him of the situation and the plans the other shinobi had been after, as well as his gratitude for assigning Naruto as one of his students.

Naruto had returned to his friends and after a thorough beating, he had assured them that his emotional phase was long over, and that he would be returning to normal.

"You baka! You almost lost your life today! You need to be more careful than that walking right into a battlefield!" Iruka yelled at his student.

"That's true but..."

"Hm you're awfully quiet today."

"That's because this is the first time you've yelled at me. I'm surprised."

"Oh...I see. That's right I've decided that from here on out I'm going to be more upfront with you. Starting tomorrow I'm going to be strict with you!"

"What?! That makes me want to go to the academy even less!"

"Naruto? Do you have the will of Fire in you?" Iruka asked.

"Of course I do sensei!" Naruto responded excited by the thought of it, "One day I'm gonna use my will of fire to prove that I'm stronger than the Yondaime and all of the other Hokage. I'm going to make everyone acknowledge my strength! Believe it!"

Iruka approached the tree Naruto was standing in front of and made a mark in the tree, "You might become the Hokage by the time you're this tall." He said.

"Yeah! I'm going to work real hard to become the Hokage!" Naruto told Iruka in excitement. This would be a conversation that shaped both Iruka and Naruto, and their relationship for a long time to come.

X

AN: Again sorry it's so late, it's been a long time coming, I hope you enjoyed the finished product. If you want to know a little about some of the summons or jutsu in here just ask I promise I'll start getting better at review responses.


	4. The Leaf Pile

The Leaf Pile

(Or Graduation at Last...He did What!)

AN: Sorry for the long wait as usual, though if you're one of my regulars it shouldn't surprise you much. I'd say it was all navy nuke school, but that's been out for a few weeks now, and it still took awhile. Also I felt it was a little rushed at the end so expect a little poorer quality down there, mostly because I'd been working on it for so long, almost a week consistently, and I've been trying to get this out for awhile. My apologies again. If you have any issues with the content of the chapter, which I find very likely, just leave a review. Also review if you want clarification on any jutsu. Thanks, and enjoy.

X

By the end of the year Sakura managed to lead the Konoha Juuni in an operation that successfully allowed Lee full access to his chakra. It did not take long before he was throwing himself into chakra training with the same level of gusto that he took on his taijutsu training. It only took him a couple of months before he was using kage bunshin to accelerate his training speed, and soon he was overdoing his training worse than Naruto and Sasuke combined. His advancement was impressive, but eventually Sakura had to put her foot down demanding that he keep his training only just outside of his limits or else she threatened to reverse the process that gave him access to his chakra. Naruto was not sure if she would actually do such a thing, but he and the others recognized that Lee was taking things a little far like he usually did.

After Sakura issued her threat Naruto took Lee aside, and tried to redirect him. "Lee I know you're happy to finally be able to use ninjutsu, but do you remember the goal that you set for yourself shortly after we became friends?" Naruto asked him.

"Of course Naruto-kun! I swore that I would prove that I would use taijutsu to become the best shinobi that I possibly could be!" Lee responded in an excitable tone.

Naruto nodded at the reminder before continuing, "That's right, and while I know that ninjutsu is great, don't you think that maybe your new focus on ninjutsu is slightly missplaced with your goal as it is? I mean you have some of the best taijutsu out of all of us, even considering Hinata and Neji's juken. Don't you think that maybe your new found capacity to use chakra could be better served to amplify your taijutsu rather than begin a focus on ninjutsu? I mean you have been working on tapping into the inner gates before, and it should probably be easier now than ever with your chakra to help you.

"Plus I heard that the Raikage managed to combine his raiton ninjutsu with his taijutsu to make something called nintaijutsu. Maybe you could try to recreate that only make a form for each element, or a form using multiple elements, or a form using combined elements. Not to mention I haven't even heard of anyone trying to do a genjutsu version of it! Plus I still need you to help me make a taijutsu style. I'm just saying Lee there's so much room for growth with the skills you already have, you should build upon them instead of just moving on to the shiny new thing available. Show the world just how great taijutsu can be! If you do that then I'll try, and keep Sakura off your case." Naruto finished trying to get Lee to return to his focus.

"YOSH you are absolutely right Naruto-kun! You have once again inspired me! I shall become as strong as a kage with my own type of taijutsu! Then I will show the world the beauty and wonder that is taijutsu!" Lee said before trapping Naruto in a mighty bear hug. That was not to say that Lee did not get a chance to sign a summon contract, shortly after Lee returned to being focused he performed the kuchiyose to discover who his summon partner was going to be.

He managed to to meet the Archonta clan lead by a gorilla named Rinkan from the primate family who as soon as he knew that Lee was from Konoha let him sign the Archonta contract since the Hokage's own summon was the leader of one of the families under the primates. Lee, and the Archontas got along extremely well and they had much to teach Lee, both in ninjutsu and taijutsu.

Lee was not the only one that got the operation of his dreams after Naruto's reconciliation with Iruka. Even before Lee managed to be operated on to allow him greater capability with his chakra Sakura managed to fully decipher and perfect Orochimaru's medical techniques and put Sasuke under the scalpel. He wanted her to place his father's eye at the base of his spine, so that he would always have his father watching his back, but she refused until she had more experience with the procedure saying that the spine would be a dangerous area to work on with the nerves she was going to be affecting. She also said that the eye to watch his back would be one of the more important eyes, so a bad one to potentially mess up. Instead she implanted another one of Sasuke's relative's eyes on Sasuke's right shoulder as a trial run.

Though of course it was not just for testing purposes. Sakura had worked on the process until she was sure that the eye would function just as good as any other eye. The placement was such that when Sasuke removed his shirt, which would be a necessity to get the advantage of most of his eyes when he received them, he would be able to see between sixty and one hundred and twenty degrees of his entire right side while looking straight ahead. Not to mention all of the advantages that a sharingan could achieve simply by looking at something: anywhere from copying a jutsu, to casting a genjutsu. Plus it increased the amount of information that Sasuke gathered so that he would miss fewer details and be capable of understanding more about what he saw. Of course with that increase in the influx of information that Sasuke was receiving Sasuke quickly discovered that it would take his brain a little while before he got used to his new eye well enough that he would be ready for another eye implanted.

X

Three more years had passed and greater advancement had occurred all around.

Shino's information web had increased so massively that it was scary. It supposedly stretched from the islands of Umi no kuni all the way to Numa no kuni. According to Shino he could be standing at the tip of Cha no Kuni and a random stranger he had never met before in Iwa could sneeze, Shino would know his name, what he was doing, his profile from bodily dimension to facial composition, what kind of jutsu he primarily used, who his next of kin was, how to kill him, and why he sneezed. Sometimes the amount that Kiho had Shino knowing honestly scared the crap out of Naruto. He was not sure if that was accurate, but he knew that Shino knew enough that he never wanted to find out if it was. For now Naruto just went straight to Shino if he needed to know anything about current events, which he knew would be helpful once he started missions.

Chouji's plans with the apartment had been moving forward full steam ahead, and it was stated to be ready the day Naruto's group graduated complete with a secret compartment for them to hide the scroll of jutsu that they had filled up with their own creations protected by Naruto and Tenten's seals. Of course there was a little bit there for everyone. Chouji had a full kitchen, stocked fridge and pantry, and every cooking utensils he would need to make all of the recipes he knew, the vastness of which shocked Naruto. The girls had insisted upon a hot springs for both genders for relaxation purposes. Neji, Hinata, and Ino had arranged for a large garden to be built that had a coy pond, and a rock garden as well. Ino also set up a separate area for her own personal herbal cultivation, both for enjoyment and practical usage. Shino used a similar area nearby to breed his insects which he used to remove more dangerous pests from the compound. Tenten had a large forge within the complex that was set up to be her own personal playground. The roof was easily accessible and wide open for Shikamaru to lay out cloud watching all day long. They made sure to acquire land as close to the outskirts as possible so that they would have no noisy neighbors, and of course could make as much noise as they wished. Not to mention it meant Kiba and Akamaru had the entire forest all to themselves.

They made sure to also include a massive library for the girls, Naruto, and Sasuke both of whom had become extremely focused on jutsu theory trying to out prove each other on whether or not elemental or shape manipulation was better. All twelve of them had their own personalized miniature suites that were to their specifications. They had also created a massive underground basement training ground that had stretched their limits with doton to develop, but spanned at least three stories deep at least a kilometer in diameter, had plenty of room for sparring, where Sasuke was sure to nearly live, and an area designated for weights to push Lee's limits. With the training nuts being how they are Sakura made sure that there was also a fully stocked medical wing, or else she was certain someone would be dead within a week of living together, and it sure as hell was not going to be her. There were also five or six common room living areas spread throughout the complex to just hang around and spend time with each other. It was impressive how much two hundred transformed clones could earn working nearly twenty four hours a day, and then when Naruto just doubled the numbers things were just getting ridiculous. Plus since they were using the construction as training most of the guys dove into it like it was a godsend, and Chouji turned out to be a decent project manager.

That of course is not to say that Chouji did not improve himself. In all that time he managed to master his Doton element and has made decent headway in katon, suiton and raiton as well, and was working on combining the elements, which was first proven possible by Naruto. Chouji had also mastered a good number of his family's jutsu and was working on a means to utilize the effects of all three super food pills without the pills though he had yet to make much headway in that, and had occasionally made better headway in managing to use the pills with his body adapted to the side effects. Currently he could only eat the first pill without side effects, so he was making slow progress, but slow progress was still progress.

Kiba too had learned everything that his clan could possibly teach him, though he also built up his other skills. In the last four years driven by Naruto and using clones to aid his training he managed to master both doton and futon elements while assisting Akamaru in mastering both katon and raiton elements, and truly the two were a force to be reckoned with even when they did not use their clan's jutsu. Akamaru would launch an offensive barrage while Kiba would either support him increasing his jutsu's potency or set up a sturdy defense to cover their asses, not to mention how they would use their elements to reinforce their clan jutsu. A flaming Akamaru or a Kiba turned tornado was hard to fight off coming straight at any opponent's face. Kiba also worked more with his summons than any of the others, turning a two fighter _**Gatsuuga **_into a twenty fighter combination of fangs. Not to mention when he would let the canines teach him other combinations, Kiba was certainly a force of nature that never fought alone, what with at least an entire pack coming to his aid in any fight.

Ino had pushed her family's techniques to their limits, learning how to use their interrogation technique on the fly so that she could read her opponent's battle plans in the middle of a fight making it difficult for even someone like Shikamaru to out-maneuver her. She had also been competing with Sakura in genjutsu development, and competing with Naruto in chakra sensing. Ino was also the first one of the twelve to delve into the usage of poisons to try and eliminate a threat, as well as using other herbs to improve her own capabilities, though she did not take it to the same level that Chouji did. Ninjutsu wise she may have been the most aggressive on her team as she managed to master raiton and was capable of using katon, suiton, and futon as well, making her one of the few individuals in the village with much proficiency in futon even if it was not a specialty. She was also her team's medic, which she took very seriously ensuring that her ijutsu was at least as skilled as a strong chunin in that field. She was more than capable of keeping her boys in check.

Speaking of Ino's boys, Shikamaru, the last member of that set team, improved far beyond what was expected of him, and far beyond what he desired with his lazy attitude. He too was a master of his clan arts taking them to the point that he could actually travel through his shadow, gather intelligence with his shadow, and even create solid shields out of shadows allowing him potentially one of the most versatile weapons of all twelve of them. Also with the help of other analytical minds in their group such as Sakura, Neji, Shino, and Sasuke, as well as Naruto's cunning and unpredictable tactics constantly challenging him he had recently surpassed even the likes of his father as far as tactics were concerned, as hard as it would be to believe. Also with the help of the illusions of Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino, Shikamaru was actually driven to push himself in the recent years. He still enjoyed the occasional lazy day, but their illusions had shown him the potential danger to his friends and family if he did not push himself, and that was not something that he was willing to accept. Shikamaru had also developed his elemental affinities to the point of mastering doton which he would constantly use to change the battlefield on his opponent and present himself with new obstacles to use to his advantage. He had also learned a decent amount about katon and raiton elements to improve his shadow and give him a sword to his shield. Though he preferred to rely on that shield, to his eyes the best offense was a good defense.

Tenten disagreed with that sentiment, generally taking the only defense between herself and her opponents being the space that was the battlefield. Her archery, and shuriken and kunai throwing were both extremely impressive, and her precision and accuracy were unparalleled for someone without a doujutsu. She had actually managed to hit Lee moving at his top speed with an arrow before, and with her seals modifying her bow and her arrows she is almost capable of competing with Naruto on unpredictability. She had a containment seal on her bow that gave her more arrows than any quiver could offer, as for her arrows her store was nearly all inclusive: she has exploding arrows; flaming arrows; barrier penetration arrows, which used a combination of wind and lightning; stun arrows; arrows with nets in containment seals for capture purposes; dousing arrows for putting out fires; grappling arrows and any number of other ideas that just came to her head. She also made sure to become proficient in both swordplay and bo staff usage, and capable with a number of other melee tools just in case someone got in too close for her arrows. That is not to say that she was a slouch in ninjutsu.

She made sure to be capable of using all five elements to improve her forge and the tools she made with it once they were in her hands during a combat situation, though she mostly focused on streaming, she had still managed to perform the water splitting exercise with katon. Her main goal as far as elemental jutsu was concerned was to discover which elements combined to form the legendary koton, and then reproduce the art. With all her focus on offense she had little in the way of defense. Sure she could form a basic earthen wall if she needed too, or summon one of her larger tools to act as a shield, perhaps even a shield she herself made. However her defensive focus was always her fuuinjutsu. She may not be as good as Naruto or the Yondaime, but she was capable of at the very least using a quick activated containment seal to catch an enemy attack, or set up a four cornered barrier seal to hold an enemy off until she was ready to fight back. Then again with a wall like Neji to cover her bases, Tenten could afford to have such a flaw in her skills, though she adamantly refused to admit to it being a flaw, which was sad coming from one so experienced in seeing flaws in things created by herself and others, a skill which came from her smith work.

Neji developed his juken in impressive ways redeveloping techniques that were only supposed to be known by the main branch, mastering techniques that were only supposed to be usable by the upper jounin and chunin, and mastering the basics of the style better than most in the clan. His kaiten was at least as durable as Hiashi's if not as large or long lasting, and his precision with the rokujuyon sho had even Naruto, who had developed a means to force his tenketsu back open, a little twitchy. He was also known to reverse the mechanics of the juken style to further open the chakra pathways, both to improve his fighting skills and to throw off his opponents. His eyes were as practiced as any other Hyuga's in the family, actually able to see five kilometers away, and the blind spot reduced to a miniscule amount. That was not to say that Neji had neglected his ninjutsu. He managed to perform the waterfall splitting with both his natural raiton element as well as a secondarily developed doton, and he was making a good deal of progress with futon. His earthen defenses were actually on par with Chouji's and his electrical attacks almost as deadly as his juken with precision and damage, though beyond his ninjutsu he was the picture of the perfect Hyuga in his ninja skills, and of course he was decades ahead of what was expected of him.

Lee made good on his promise to refocus his efforts on his taijutsu in the short time that he had full access to ninjutsu, and he managed to develop quite a few different taijutsu styles. He helped Naruto develop a taijutsu style completely focused around his clones, and Lee himself was the only one except Naruto able to come close to using it. He had also managed to develop a taijutsu style completely focused on genjutsu, that used illusions to hide attacks, targeted an opponents sense of touch, and even increased the perceived effect of damage beyond what was expected. Lee was truly proud of his work with the five elemental styles, which while he had yet to actually split a waterfall with any of the elements he could stream with all five and had laid down a heavy layer of ground work for all five styles. Also on Naruto's encouragement Lee began working on mastering the inner gates, and by the time he graduated he was able to open the first five and hold the first one open for a week straight with little to no effect on his body. The control he developed by doing so improved his efficiency by leaps and bounds. That was all before he got his new sensei, which turned out to be Maito Gai. Gai taught Lee the Goken style which he took too like a fish out of water. Gai also pushed Lee's strength and speed to be comparable to most chunin while he was still weighted and without unleashing his gates. The fact that Lee wore weights on his wrists, ankles, and in a vest under his gi and over the spandex jumpsuit his sensei gave him and the wrist weights alone were heavy enough to crush a tiled floor if Lee was not careful, just proved how dangerous Lee was when he went all out, which he would refuse to do under most circumstances.

Sakura had grown just as much as her friends, if not more. She was the most qualified medic among them able to diagnose and cure just about everything that the twelve of them brought to her within minutes. She had also made significant progress with her attempts to mimic Tsunade's strength, her chakra pulse enhancement techniques were actually able to boost her strength and speed at least five fold per pulse, and she could initiate a pulse at the drop of a hat. Though it was not like she needed to use such tactics much as her body evolutionary technique had actually improved her physical body to become naturally stronger, faster, and more resilient than most shinobi in their prime. She had also introduced stresses to her body that made it impervious to most diseases, poisons, acids, and able to withstand the heat and energy from most mid level katon and raiton jutsu, and the pressure from most mid level doton and suiton jutsu. Her genjutsu was also an impressive work, as she was able to fool the likes of Sasuke, Neji, and Hinata even with their doujutsu. She was also the only other individual who knew how to use Lee's gen-taijutsu, and who knew at least the mechanics behind Naruto's four primary genjutsu. Though she refused to use one due to it's vulgarity, and could not use one of the others because it required a bijuu, she was very proficient in the other two though not quite as much as Naruto himself. Sakura had also mastered the waterfall splitting exercise with both doton and suiton, and could use such ninjutsu for either offensive or defensive purposes. She was also looking into uses for the other three elements in the medical field and was learning some interesting ijutsu for them in preparation of learning the elements themselves.

Hinata too had made improvement in the years leading to their graduation. She had become proficient in the Juken style of taijutsu, but rather than continue developing it as her family had done with strict, precise strikes, she incorporated it with an enjoyment of dance that she discovered in her recent years forging her own style that was far more fluid, and which used that fluidity to make her unpredictable to the point of making Naruto proud. She had even worked to develop her own jutsu for her new fighting style, while she was learning the techniques that were foundations of the original style. Hinata also mastered her suiton to a level surpassing her peers, as well as learning the basics of katon, futon, and raiton. To build along with her suiton she, like Ino and Sakura, built up a skill in ijutsu though she preferred using that skill to develop balms and ointments for most occasions, something she did more out of enjoyment than the necessity to expand her skills. The eagles proved to be good companions for her pushing her forward no matter what anyone else said, though she could hardly be considered without support what with her family, including her uncle, cousin, and father, not too mention Naruto who provided enough encouragement for an entire army. The eagles' though provided an interesting piece of advice in their support of her. They told her, her byakugan granted better vision than her enemy so why not take advantage of that? From that advice Hinata began learning genjutsu as well both to blind her opponent expanding the gap between their vision and her's, and showing them visions of sights that they were not meant to process that her brain was capable of processing to confuse them. Hinata was also capable of using Naruto's three genjutsu that did not require the Kyuubi's chakra. It turned out her only true weakness was that little orange book that she had become addicted to after reading it at a little too young of an age.

Sasuke had probably pushed further in his improvement than any of the others, barring Naruto and Lee, mostly because of a competition with the former. His speed was, like most of his skills, at least third among the twelve, only paling compared to Lee, who had become insane physically, and Naruto, if you could really call out lasting Sasuke in a competition grounds for being faster. Also Sasuke was the closest to keeping up with Naruto as far as chakra capacity. While their group ranged in chakra capacity from Tenten who could only make a little more than twenty bunshin up to Lee and Choji who could make one hundred plus clones. Sasuke could make as many clones as the other ten combined, though he was still at best one tenth, Naruto's capacity, and he certainly could not use them as skillfully on the battlefield as Naruto, or Lee. He was able to use those clones in his affinity training, and had managed to fully master both katon and raiton, and was working on the suiton and doton waterfall splitting exercises and could actually stream futon. The first two were easy for him, while the second two interested him since he first saw Naruto fuse two elements leading Sasuke to aspire to perform mokuton like the Rikudo Sennin was rumored capable of doing, and the futon just seemed to benefit his fighting style. It was good at enhancing katon, as well as sharpening the katana which he had learned to use with more skill than even Tenten, though to be fair Tenten had him beat in diversity. By the time Sasuke reached graduation, his training with the raptors pushed his sharingan all the way to three tomoe in each eye, and he was able to control four extra sets of eyes: one on each shoulder, two at the base of his neck on his spine (one in the front and one of his back), and two on his sternum (one at the top and one at the bottom). When he used all of his eyes he was truly formidable though he, like Lee, planned on holding back as much as possible, and not revealing his extra eyes. With his eyes as developed as they were he easily mastered any ninjutsu shown him, and had become nearly as devastating as Sakura with genjutsu though he did not use it as frequently, preferring to attack rather than support. Sasuke was probably the closest of the twelve to Naruto's skill.

Naruto's skill had truly developed more so than any of the others. Upon the assistance of the fox clan, Naruto had learned quite a few of their genjutsu. Also being the unpredictable shinobi he was, he could not help himself, but to develop a few of his own. The first one was his illusionary version of the _**Oiroke no Jutsu**_ which drove the technique even further, involving a full harem of servants begging to do whatever their master desired whether sexual or otherwise. Such a world was truly difficult for even the most disciplined of individuals to leave behind, making the illusion remarkably potent. Naruto also developed a technique which he used in conjunction with a hint of the Kyuubi's chakra to create an illusion where the enemy was trapped in the Kyuubi's cage, and would then proceed to become the Kyuubi's new favorite chew toy. Kyuubi particularly enjoyed this illusion as he received some of the feedback from the technique, though Naruto had, yet to develop a need for the illusion. He also began focusing his experience with his clones to create another illusion based on all of the feedback from dead clones. It would afterall be difficult to focus on a fight when you're experiencing your own death a thousand different new and creative ways. His prized most illusion though was one that drew upon the worst of all the experiences of every individual he knew, his suffering of the lonely, which forced an individual to live the most painful moments of the lives of everyone he knew magnified to their most depressing levels. Of course a skill that absorbed so much time had quite a few kinks, but it was still a rather painful illusion.

The fact that Naruto was hardly a genjutsu type, really showed how impressive such developments were. He had also mastered the taijutsu style that he, and Lee created focusing on clones to the point that it frustrated even Neji to fight him just because it was impossible to tell what you were hitting and even when you actually hit Naruto he just slipped around the blow and doubled himself again. He was also able to use the clones for combinations, that while possible without them it would be highly difficult. These combinations ranged from human ladders, human shields, and extra attack angles, to mid-air redirectioning and temporary aerial platforms. Fighting one hundred men in ten meter radius area was one thing, fighting one hundred men in a ten meter radius area that attacked in perfect synchronization continuing to multiply while always disguising your target was a whole new level of crazy.

Naruto's ninjutsu had risen even further potentially becoming grander than any of his friends. He developed a rasengan variant of each of the five primary elements, after he mastered their individual leaf exercises, streaming exercises, and waterfall splitting exercises. These jutsu were the: _**Futon: Rasenshuriken; Katon: Rasenkunai; Doton: Rasentate; Raiton: Rasentaiho; **_and _**Suiton: **__**Rasen Bakamono**__**.**_ To be able to perform perfect shape manipulation on each of the elements proved his skill with them. He also stumbled upon three individual advanced elements in the forms of Shakuton, Jiton, and Bakuton, and while he trained with using the three advanced elements, and hoped to discover how to perform others down the road he was not comfortable enough with those three to use them in combat. As far as the advanced elements were concerned he tried to form chakra exercises around them so that he could better control them, and so far it was slow going. There was good news on that front, however, as it seems ever since Naruto began working with the advanced elements his skill in using the primary elements for those advanced elements: fire, wind, earth, and lightning; was improving greatly leading Naruto to try and figure an advanced element for water as well, which, like his chakra exercises for the elements he had discovered, was slow going. Still the fact that he proved advanced elements were possible without kekkei genkai if given enough dedication to a discipline was certainly promising, and it gave hope to the whole group for new heights to reach.

A good deal of the group's hope for the chakra exercises lay in what they truly were. They were not as simple as cutting a leaf or sharpening a blade or carving through a force of nature, there was so much more to them than that. Taking the Futon exercises for instance: the leaf cutting exercise is not simply about cutting a leaf; it is about expelling chakra from the body so that it may be shifted to a new form, that of an element in this case wind, then move from the body so that it can affect an outside source in this case ripping, tearing, or otherwise cutting the leaf. The kunai sharpening by streaming Fuuton chakra is a focus to extend the chakra of the user to surround and benefit the tool as if it were an extension of the user benefiting the tool. The waterfall splitting technique is the most advanced as it involves the user molding their chakra into the natural element already existing and pushing it to obey their will, in this instance interrupting the flow of water. Each element representing a piece of creation and destructive with earth being creation, water being transformation, lightening representing destruction, with fire the conversion from creation to destruction, and wind representing the perfect middle ground of constantly changing between states of creation and destruction. It was all of this theory that helped Naruto to create his advanced elements, and which had Sakura, and Sasuke, the two amongst his friends most keen on such chakra theoretical information, assisting him, while Chouji and Tenten assisted heavily with the application portion of it.

X

The day before the graduation exam for the younger year of shinobi was met with the sun rising to a peaceful Konohagakure no Sato. Of course with Uzumaki Naruto running around peaceful means anything, but quiet. "NARUTO!" was the scream that reverberated within the village walls, as a number of chunin and jonin chased the young, blond, jinchuuriki through the village as he fled the scene of his latest crime: vandalism of the hokage monument.

Naruto had painted Hashirama to resemble a young raven haired woman sitting in a dignified position. Tobirama was forced to look extremely odd, to the point that it was hard to distinguish him as human as one of his eyes seemed to move to be directly beneath the other, while his whole face was covered in randomly colored jagged stripes of color. Hiruzen's face was covered over by a simple soup can, Naruto felt anticlimactic about that one, but decided it would do. Minato's image on the monument had somehow lost it's hair and gained hands which were held to his face, which formed the visage of a terrified scream. Naruto thought it was fine art. His fellow villagers clearly disagreed.

Naruto laughed back at his pursuiters, "You guys are just jealous, you don't have the guts to do something like that!" He called back.

"You've gone too far this time, defacing the Hokage monument!" Kotetsu yelled back.

"Defacing!? That stings Izumo, I'd prefer you refer to it as fine art." Naruto responded fake tears rolling down the side of his face.

"Baka, I'm not Izumo I'm Kotetsu!" The chunin yelled in outrage at being mixed up with his friend.

"You are? You know someone should really differentiate between the two of you, all I've ever been told is 'this is Izumo and Kotetsu' nobody ever told me, which of you was whom." Naruto informed in apology.

"Gaki!" Kotetsu called out as he and his team picked up the pace of their pursuit as Naruto lead them down an alleyway lined with picket fences.

The chunin and jonin never noticed as Naruto replaced himself with a kage bunshin he hid in the area and performed a quick, but subtle camouflaging illusion to blend himself into the fence. With all the skill he had picked up with the foxes he had little need for camouflage tarps the likes of which he had once used to perform similar escapes from pursuing chunin and jonin.

As the chunin and jonin began passing him by Naruto began thinking about his last day in the academy, 'This time I'm not going to let myself fail. This time the group passes. Now do I want to go back, or not? Hm, might as well, don't know when I'll get to see Iruka-sensei again once I become a genin.' With his inner monologue complete Naruto let his illusion slip off as he chuckled at his ability to fool the more experienced ninja. Just then a shadow began looming above him. "Ha ha, Iruka-sensei Ohayo, how are you doing today?"

"Naruto, what do you think you're doing during my class time?" Iruka asked him. Naruto could just chuckle up at his teacher, scratching the back of his head trying to figure out an acceptable answer. Before he could Naruto found himself hogtied and being dragged back to the academy.

X

Once Iruka and Naruto arrived back at the academy, Iruka unceremoniously dumped the hogtied blond on the floor in front of his class. "Tomorrow is the Ninja Academy's graduation examination. You've failed the last two exams! This is no time to be causing trouble baka!" The instructor yelled at Naruto in irritation.

"Yeah yeah." Naruto shrugged off the scolding in complete disinterest.

"That's it time for a review test on _**Henge no Jutsu**_. Everyone line up!" Iruka's orders were met with a resounding cry of outrage. "Transform perfectly into me!"

As the class lined up Sasuke came up to Naruto, "Not bad, dobe, the work was rather impressive, no one even noticed until you were done, and you didn't get caught until you let yourself get caught."

"Huh, you saw all that, eh teme?" Naruto said.

"All of us did, we each still have a number of clones working the shops." Shino chimed in as he passed the two by to get in line.

"You know, if I'd have wanted to I could've kept it hidden even longer." Naruto boasted.

"Yeah right, I'm sure there would be someone who'd see it. Maybe a Hyuga, or Kakashi. Shit if no one else did, I'd have turned you in just to wipe that grin off your face." Kiba countered, trying to get the blond in a headlock and failing miserably.

"You should be careful, Naruto Iruka's the one who grades the final, if you piss me off he might just fail you again. We can't have you failing this time, because this one actually matters." Ino warned concerned.

"Ah, let him have his fun Ino." Chouji said clapping Naruto on the back.

"Yeah besides Iruka wouldn't fail him for something like that." Sakura agreed.

"I like your pranks Naruto, but if you don't pass tomorrow you're going to be in major trouble." Hinata warned playfully. This actually had Naruto just a little bit nervous, he was looking forward to passing the exam, and the privileges that came with being a genin and therefore an adult.

"Mendokuse," was all Shikamaru had to say as he drowsily walked to his place in line.

Naruto's other classmates were grouching and complaining as they stood in line waiting for their chance to perform the jutsu and placate Iruka. They all blamed Naruto for the inconvenience of having to prove their capability, but Naruto did not give half a shit about any of their opinions, they were not his family, and from how he figured whether they passed the test tomorrow or not their jounin sensei would not see most of them fit to continue on as genin this cycle, and they would be sent back here. In short they and their opinions just did not matter.

As Naruto listened to the complaints of his classmates and waited for his turn to pass Iruka's little pop quiz, he became bored. A bored Naruto is a dangerous Naruto, a scheming Naruto. Once Naruto was called on to show his skill he stood before Iruka, "_**Henge no Jutsu!"**_ he called out.

As soon as he began moulding chakra, Ino face palmed in irritation as she felt how he was moulding his chakra. Sasuke, and Hinata seeing this quickly triggered their bloodlines. Sasuke immediately shut his eyes completely, and turned away avoiding the sight that was before him, while Hinata leaned in closer in interest, though it was more out of reflex rather than necessity as she did not actually need to move to get a closer look. Shino simply raised an eyebrow at what he was sensing before rolling his eyes, at the blond's antics, his bugs would deal with any discomfort or embarrassment from the sight that he was about to behold.

As the smoke cleared for the jutsu Naruto was revealed as a naked Naruko, his female version, in a very suggestive pose blowing Iruka a kiss. As soon as Iruka caught a glimpse of the voluptuous blond he was sent rocketing backwards from a massive nose bleed, along with the majority of the male portion of the class as well as a few of the females. Once Naruko saw that her appearance had the desired effect she returned to her normal appearance of Naruto, and bust up laughing. "So what do you think of my _**Oiroke no jutsu **_Iruka-sensei?"

As soon as Naruto was back to normal he had more to worry about that just Iruka, "Let me at him I'm gonna crush that blond pig!" Ino growled waking up Shikamaru who had fallen asleep while he waited for his turn to perform the Henge. Seeing Chouji unconscious do to a nose bleed, Shikamaru quickly used his Kage Mane to restrain Ino from strangling their mutual friend. "Let me go Shika that baka needs to be taught a lesson about respect for women!" but Shikamaru would not budge, much to his own displeasure.

"I'm gonna make him rue the day he ever invented that jutsu!" Sakura growled as she also attempted to strangle the jinchuuriki. Luckily for Naruto Sasuke had looked away before Naruto completed his jutsu, and was currently attempting to restrain her by holding onto her and applying a light application of lightning nature chakra to dull her nerves so that she has a difficult time escaping, "Let me go Sasuke-kun! I'm gonna kill him for this! Using that disgraceful excuse for a jutsu in public, he's gonna get it this time! I'm gonna smear him all over the walls!"

"No your not, Sakura-chan. Even if I were to let you go you'd just beat him up a little bit and them heal the damage." Sasuke informed her calmly.

"Then at least give me that satisfaction!" Sakura whined as Sasuke continued to restrain her.

As Shino noticed the uproar his friends were causing, he looked down at Kiba noticing that like Chouji he was also unconscious do to a loss of blood. I slight tinge of worry began to creep over him, as he looked to his last female friend as the dredd continued to spread. He was almost surprised however when, instead of the outrage that the other females were exhibiting and that he expected to find Hinata to be displaying, he found that she was pouting in disappointment. Noticing Shino's curiosity, Hinata answered the Aburame's unanswered question, "I was hoping if he used one of his perverted jutsu in public he would at least use the Haremu, so much more fun." She informed him. This hardly explained matters as far as Shino was concerned, however he decided to let it go seeing as it seemed to make things simpler for him.

Once Iruka came to his senses he utilized his big head technique to immediately answer Naruto's question on his opinion of Naruto's technique, "You Dumbass! Don't invent stupid skills!"

X

"I won't let you go home until you clean all of it off." Iruka called down to Naruto as Naruto stood on a scaffold scrubbing away at the paint, while Iruka observed from further up holding on to the mountain with his chakra.

"Like I care, it's not like I have anyone to go home to either. Not for a couple more days anyway." Naruto mumbled the last part to himself. As Naruto was grumbling to himself as he worked on cleaning off the mountain, he heard a tapping coming from Iruka up above him, "Now what?"

"Well umm...if you clean all of this up," Iruka began, "I'll buy you some ramen tonight."

"Alright! I'll have this done in a jiffy!" Naruto yelled out, as he started digging through one of his pockets while chanting, "Ramen, ramen everywhere. Ramen ramen everywhere." Before pulling out a slip of paper, which he stuck to the mountain and began flipping through hand seals.

"What is he doing?" Iruka began mumbling to himself.

When Naruto was done with his hand seals he finished on the hitsuchi seal, before calling out, "FUIN!" all of the sudden all of the paint that Naruto had used to desecrate the Hokage monument began creeping towards the little slip of paper, taking the color with it. In no time at all the Hokage monument was completely devoid of color, and Naruto slipped the piece of paper back in his pocket before lunging up the mountain to grab on to a gaping Iruka, "Come on, come on the ramen is waiting for us! It calls to me! It says Naruto eat me! Let's go Iruka-sensei!"

X

"How did you manage to do that?" Iruka gushed out in amazement towards Naruto's quick clean up method, as Ayame placed a bowl of ramen in front of each teacher and student.

"Never pull a prank you can't clean up Iruka-sensei." Naruto said proudly, "I coated the paint in my chakra before I applied it, so it would be easier to apply, easier to conceal, harder to remove for anyone else, and easier for me to clean when I felt like it. I'll I really had to do after that was pull out a seal that locked on and, on my command, absorbed my chakra, and the paint just came right with it."

"Rather clever of you, Naruto." Iruka admitted pensively, "Why do you waste time on stupid, useless techniques like the oiroke when you can pull off a trick like that?"

"C'mon Iruka-sensei, you're a chunin, and a teacher nonetheless, you of all people should know that every technique has its uses. I mean you probably scoffed at that little clean up sealing trick if you had not seen it being used where it was needed. I bet you would not think that it could also be used to constantly change the field of battle to keep an opponent on his toes, or suck up water that provided a lake front battlefield completely throwing off most shinobi, and nearly disabling one who mastered suiton. Similarly earlier today I was actually able to incapacitate you with the oiroke. Sure it was not for a long time, but there was still time you were completely out of it. At it's best it would provide a similar or even more severe effect on a perverse opponent, at it's worst it does nothing, but buy me a few seconds from an opponent that never expect someone to use such a ridiculous technique. In the world of shinobi just a few seconds can mean life or death. Besides that's just the assumption that you've seen. The _**Oiroke no Jutsu **_was actually the bases for a new technique that I developed, which is a new and improved form of the henge, I call the _**Kage Henge no Jutsu. **_Kinda like the kage bunshin makes a solid bunshin, the kage henge makes a solid henge, a literal transformation rather than simply an illusion. It's great for making impromptu weapons out of clones or really, if I can get it down, anything on hand, or turn yourself into an unexpected weapon your allies can use for a flanking maneuver. Even if they see it coming nobody would expect a shuriken to suddenly sprout arms a chunk a kunai of its own at them.

"And that's only the combat uses for it. No one would expect a random rock, or the odd shuriken left behind by a long battle to actually be the enemy in disguise, and it's a whole lot easier when you are actually that rock, and aren't just covered by an illusion that can be seen through. Not to mention a man will tell anything to a seductive, pretty face if he thinks he's getting something out of it." Naruto continued as he promoted the uses of his 'stupid' technique.

"The boy's right Iruka, I've seen that technique and it works as advertised. It's as solid as this pot I'm holding. If he can change the target like he's saying I'd suggest looking it to it." Teuchi said pitching in his two cents as he continued to prepare ramen. Suddenly Teuchi found himself on the floor with a large bump growing on his head as Ayame stood over her father with a skillet in her hand as she tore into him for encouraging Naruto's use of his perverted technique.

Iruka began chuckling and scratching the back of his head in embarrassment for the man, "I suppose you have a point Naruto." He admitted grudgingly before returning to his ramen. After a pause Iruka began speaking again, "Naruto do you remember who the Hokage are? Do you remember what I told you about them?"

Naruto thought about it for a second, as he chewed his ramen, "Of course I remember who they are. They each individually were the strongest shinobi of the village, of our entire country, during their time. I think they may have even been some of the strongest shinobi on the continent based on the records of their battles. They were also respected leaders of this village who kept us from dissolving into clan loyalties, uniting us both during war, when it is easy to unite, and during peace, when most people would rather look out for only themselves."

"Then, why? Why would you deface their monument? Why would you desecrate their memory? Why would you do something like that." Iruka asked emphatically.

"Because one day I'm going to become one of the Hokage, and when I do I'm going to be the strongest one of them all, so that I'll always be there to look out for the outcasts, the little guy, and I plan to be strong enough to be able to do that for a long time." Naruto said, before continuing with even greater passion in his voice, "Besides the Hokage were more than just giants. More than just strong shinobi. More than just the faces on a mountain side. The Hokage were people too, with likes, dislikes, dreams. They had personalities, but when people look at that monument all they see are blank emotionless stone faces looking down on them, when there's so much more to the Hokage than that. I want people to remember that when I become Hokage, hell I'll desecrate my own monument if that's what it takes to remind them!"

Iruka had to give an amused chuckle at his student's statement not doubting it for a second, "That certainly is an interesting take on it. I hope you manage remain humble enough to still be able to laugh at yourself if you ever become Hokage."

"There's no if about it sensei. I will become Hokage, I've got too many people depending on it and too many people backing me up not to succeed." Naruto declared, before returning to the defense of his previous actions, "Besides my pranks are great training tools. It takes stealth to pull them off. Creativity to come up with them, not to mention other trap setting skills. Plus I have to build up my stealth and evasion to get away after the fact."

"I suppose you're right," Iruka admitted, "But your skills have got a long way to go if a simple chunin like me can catch you."

"I let you catch me every time Iruka-sensei, besides weren't you up for jounin before you went back to teach instead? You're pretty good ninja even if I wasn't letting you catch me." Naruto countered.

"Sure you let me catch you. Like I'd believe that for a second." Iruka growled.

"Maybe I'll just have to show you next time." Naruto challenged blowing a raspberry at his teacher, before the two broke down in laughter.

X

"Alright everyone, today Mizuki-sensei will be assisting me in grading the graduation exam. For said exam when your name is called, you will perform the _**Bunshin no Jutsu**_ and based upon your performance you will be graded with either a pass or a fail. Now to start off, Aburame Shino please follow me." Iruka informed his class.

Naruto had decided to sit off by himself for the day. He was confidant about the exam, especially since _**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **_was his best technique. When Iruka came in and called his name he calmly followed his teacher to the next room where he would be performing the technique. As soon as he entered the room he got a strange vibe from Mizuki-sensei. Mizuki had always shown an intense dislike for Naruto, but the front that Mizuki was putting up was entirely supportive of him. He also began scanning Mizuki's chakra and felt a chakra surrounding the teacher that reminded him greatly of the residue left over in Orochimaru's bases.

"Alright Naruto just create two clones and you'll pass the exam." Iruka informed his student.

This was the moment of truth Naruto could pass with flying colors easily, or he could perform exactly the way Mizuki was expecting falling right into, what Naruto felt, was a trap. If Naruto did not fall into Mizuki's trap what would the instructor do? He was not worried about being attacked because Mizuki would not risk it with Naruto present, besides no one had ever actually outright attacked him. Even if Mizuki waited until later, Naruto could take the chunin, and even if he could not his friends would more than likely be there to back him up. Of course there was another thought that occurred to Naruto, what if Mizuki's pleasure was not directed at Naruto for Mizuki's dislike of him, but were actually because he was known for failing the academy graduation exam? there was a situation that occurred in the last year or so were a chunin exam failure was tricked into stealing a valuable artifact for his sensei in hopes of being promoted, and both were since marked as village traitors. What if Mizuki was planning something like that? That would certainly explain the residue of Orochimaru's chakra that Naruto felt. If Naruto did not do it then would Mizuki use some less suspecting failure? Would he act on his own? Was Naruto just being paranoid?

Naruto was running out of time, he had to make a decision. His gut had not let him down before, it was time to make a gamble. He was going to have to go with his gut, and so began performing the hand signs for the _**Bunshin no Jutsu**_making sure to add in just enough chakra that it was slightly overcharged, and as he called out "_**Bunshin no Jutsu!" **_he let go barely creating one pathetic looking clone. After his attempt was complete he listened to the two instructors argue over whether, or not his attempt at the technique was a success or a failure, and as he expected given his warning signs Mizuki was arguing for his success while Iruka was declaring his failure. Iruka won out in the end, and Naruto was sent from the room having failed, thinking to himself, 'This had better be worth it, because I actually wanted to pass. Hinata's gonna rip me a new one for this.'

X

Naruto sat on a swing in the academy courtyard watching the other students as they celebrated with their family, and friends. He was waiting for Mizuki, who he felt leaving the academy, while trying to avoid his friends and ignore the words of those who graduated and disliked him. Even those that did not know about the Kyuubi had some bad things to say about him, and they all just frustrated him when he was like this. Luckily, Mizuki was not far from approaching him, which pleased Naruto to know that he was right. "Naruto..."

"Mizuki-sensei? What do you want?" Naruto asked sounding as downtrodden as possible.

"Would you follow me please?" Mizuki asked sounding more caring than Naruto ever remembered.

"Fine, whatever."

X

Sasuke was walking Sakura home, both holding hands with their forehead protectors in place, though Sakura had decided to use it to keep her hair out of her face so the plate was further up on the top of her head. As they approached Sakura's apartment, they noticed Mebuki Haruno outside sweeping dirt off the front porch. Sakura let go of Sasuke's hand and ran to give her mother a large hug, "Mom guess what."

"You passed, didn't you?" Mebuki said a small smile on her face.

"Yep, I'm finally a shinobi of Konoha!" Sakura said a large smile on her face.

"I had a feeling you would do it, honey," Mebuki said as she put her broom inside the door frame, "You'd better start packing then."

"Packing? Why?" Sakura asked.

"You remember our agreement don't you dear?" Mebuki asked, "We can't stay here, Sakura. Your father has already started packing our things, and the rest of the clan has been leaving for the last few weeks. Me and your father already have a good deal of ground to make up. We're going to have to leave tomorrow, and the landlord needs, the apartment ready to be turned over before we leave."

"You mean you're leaving?! You're actually leaving me?!" Sakura asked in shock.

"We have to move on honey, our goods aren't selling well, and the meager funds that your father, and I receive from minor missions aren't enough to sustain our family. It's a merchant's life, move on and survive, or get left by the caravan and starve. We need to get back to our way of life. Besides dear you're a genin now, an adult, you can pave your own way. You need to pave your own way. You have so much potential dear, you can't waste it with the caravan. Become a strong kunoichi Sakura and make us proud." Mebuki told her daughter, "I need to go inside and help your father." She said before leaving Sakura to be comforted by Sasuke.

Once inside Mebuki turned to Kizashi, "I don't know if I can do this Kizashi."

"I know dear, but she needs this. If we stay we'll only hold her back. Not to mention I don't know if we'll be able to survive if we stay, with our funds as low as they are." Kizashi responded, more serious than Mebuki had seen him in years.

"She needs us!" Mebuki countered.

"We're her parents, she'll always need us, but right now she needs us to let her be her own person. This won't be a goodbye, Mebuki, simply a see you later." Kizashi said trying to comfort his wife as he wrapped his arms around her. Mother, and daughter both sought out comfort from the men that they loved in this difficult time of separation.

X

"Iruka-sensei is a very serious person." Mizuki informed Naruto, as if he were trying to console the blond after the decision for his failure was made, "He lost his parents at a young age, and has had to do everything for himself since then."

"But, why does he only pick on me?" Naruto questioned, Mizuki playing into his plans, knowing that Mizuki could not possibly know or expect the relationship the two had built up over the years. Mizuki was blinded by his hatred, and Naruto was going to take advantage of that.

"He probably sees himself in you." Mizuki replies, which actually surprised Naruto, "He's probably thinking he wants you to become strong in a real way. Try to understand Iruka's feelings, since you don't have parents either."

Naruto sighed, it was time to go in for the kill, "It's just, I really wanted to graduate this time."

"Well them," Mizuki began, "I'll tell you a special secret."

X

"HE DID WHAT!" Hinata yelled out, letting loose a shriek the likes of which no one had ever from her before, sending birds and other animals scattering in all directions. It was currently 2000 and the eight new genin of the leaf twelve were currently gathered at training ground twelve.

"Please, calm down Hinata, I'm sure he had a perfectly good reason for..." Chouji tried to ease his friend's mind, but she was not having any of it.

"Perfectly, good reason? Perfectly, good reason? He knew the plan! We all graduate, then we move into the apartment, and we can finally publicly reveal our relationship!" Hinata whined.

"So that's what this is all about, Hinata's tired of stealing kisses in shadows, and back alleys." Kiba teased making kissy faces.

"That's perfectly fine with me. That frees up a whole bunch of shadows. That, is not the kind of information I'm looking for when I use my kage su." Shikamaru complained.

"It's not just that." Hinata said as she began poking her fingers together as she looked away and a slight blush tinged her face.

"Then what was it?" Sakura asked.

"It's not like you were going to sleep together?" Ino said rhetorically. When Hinata just tried to avoid their looks even more Ino gasped, "No way!"

"Well technically by law, they would be adults, it would completely be up to them." Shino said.

"I'm guessing the dobe has no idea, otherwise I don't think their would be anything that would keep him from passing that test." Sasuke said.

"I was going to surprise him, I got the idea from one of the new Icha Icha books..." Hinata said, before Kiba interrupted her.

"Of course you did. Wow Hinata you're obsessed with those books."

"Stuff it Kiba, they have a good plot." She tried to defend herself.

"It's a good thing Neji's not here to hear this." Shikamaru interjected. It was well known that the more traditional Hyuga did not approve of his cousin's perverse literature.

"It's a good thing that I'm not here to hear what, Shikamaru-san." Neji inquired as he and his teammates came sprinting into the clearing.

"Mendokuse." Shikamaru muttered.

"N-Nothing nii-san." Hinata said in embarrassment, holding up her hands as if surrender, as she tried to sweep the conversation under the rug. When she saw her cousin not buying it she changed the subject, "What's the rush? You and your teammates were coming in pretty fast, did something important happen?"

"Have you heard about Naruto?" Lee questioned as he came up behind his teammates.

"You mean that he failed the graduation exam? Yeah we heard." Chouji responded.

"He failed the graduation exam?!" Lee questioned.

"We heard he stole the forbidden scroll of sealing. Why would he fail the graduation exam? He could fulfill the requirements with his chakra sealed off. He has fulfilled the requirements to pass with his chakra sealed." Tenten commented.

"Why would he steal the forbidden scroll? We practically have the whole thing copied down in that scrolled that we put all of our jutsu on in the apartment." Ino added.

"I smell a rat." Kiba said.

"Don't look at me, I haven't summoned anyone today." Tenten told him.

"That's not what I'm talking about."

"Alright, that's enough, come on we've got a dobe whose ass we need to pull out of the fire." Sasuke said, trying to break up the bickering, "Ino, Shino, do either of you have an idea where he is?"

"Hai!" They both responded.

"Good, lead the way." Sasuke ordered before the eleven of them took off.

X

Naruto stopped to take a break from his training. He had been using his clones to work on his shakuton and bakuton elements, but there was still little headway to be had with his lack of knowledge on the subjects, what with no bakuton or shakuton experts in the village and no books on the subjects because they were advanced elements.

As he was enjoying his rest he noticed a shadow looming over him. He looked up straight into the eyes of his most recent teacher, Iruka. "I've found you!" Iruka said.

"So you did Iruka-sensei, and I only had time to learn one jutsu." Naruto said. It was far from the truth, as if he did not already at least know of the techniques on the scroll, if he used his clones he could've had the whole scroll memorized with the amount of time they gave him to look over it. He would have to fix that when he became Hokage.

"Hey, you're all beat up, what were you doing?" Iruka asked.

"Never mind that, I'm going to show you an amazing skill, and then you'll let me graduate!" He had a feeling that he might be able to convince Iruka to follow through, but this was not about his graduation it was about bagging Mizuki.

"Naruto where did you get that scroll on your back?" Iruka asked.

"Oh this? Mizuki-sensei told me about it, and about this training ground too." Naruto informed Iruka.

"Mizuki?"

"He said that if I showed you this jutsu, then you'd definitely, let me graduate." Naruto continued, as he watched the pieces fall into place in Iruka's mind.

As the realization finally dawned on Iruka they both heard the sound of flying metal, and Iruka shoved Naruto out of the way just in time as Iruka was struck by a dozen kunai. "Iruka-sensei!?" Naruto cried out in genuine concern for his teacher.

"I'm fine Naruto." Iruka assured as he began removing knives that were stuck in his body, and looked up at the face of his former friend, Mizuki smiling down at them menacingly.

"Nice job in finding him." Mizuki congratulated his former colleague.

"I see so that's what's going on."

"Naruto give me the scroll!" Mizuki demanded.

"Hey what's going on here!?" Naruto questioned trying to fit into their expectations of him.

"Naruto don't give him the scroll even if your life depends on it!" Iruka ordered. "That is a dangerous scroll that has forbidden ninjutsu sealed within it. Mizuki used you to steal the scroll!"

As soon as Iruka told Naruto that, Mizuki made his bid for Naruto's trust, "There's no point in you having it Naruto. I'll tell you the truth."

"N-No don't!" Iruka yelled futilely trying to stop Mizuki.

"12 years ago...you know about the demon fox being sealed right? Since that incident a new law was created for this village." Mizuki began.

"A law?" Naruto questioned playing dumb and leading Mizuki along.

"But Naruto this law was never meant to be told to you."

"Not to me? What is this law? Why?" As Mizuki began chuckling, Naruto implored him to inform him of the secret, "What...what kind of law is it?"

"The law is that nobody is allowed to talk about the fact that you are the demon fox!"

"W-What do you mean?" Naruto questioned, stuttering as he tried to contain his amusement.

"Stop it!" Iruka yelled.

"It means that you are the nine tails demon that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed the village. You were sealed up by the Hokage you admire and..."

"STOP IT!" Iruka tried again.

"You have been lied to by everyone! Didn't you find it odd how everyone hated you? Iruka is the same! He actually can't stand you!" Mizuki told him.

"Naruto." Iruka muttered under his breath.

"Nobody will ever accept you! That scroll was used to seal you up! I think I'll just do the village a favor and get rid of you right now, before I take off with that scroll!" Mizuki said appearing demented as he spun one of the large sized shuriken that he brought with him, before he let it fly towards the blond.

"Naruto!" Iruka cried out as he lunged himself between the crouched blond and the shuriken, and braced for the painful impact. After a second of feeling nothing new he looked behind himself only to see a blond standing there with his palms facing each other as if praying and the shuriken caught between them, the blade looking remarkably more dull than it should. "Naruto? But how?" He looked back down to see Naruto squatting there with his hands in a cross shaped seal.

"_**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." **_Naruto said calmly as he got out from underneath Iruka and let loose his seal. "Man, Mizuki-teme what a hoot, me the Kyuubi no Kitsune? I know he can shape shift, but I think that would be an impressive transformation even for him. As for nobody acknowledging me, that's a load of bullshit, that if you'd actually open those short sighted eyes of yours for a second you'd realize that even without Iruka-sensei I've still got people who believe in me. Sure they may not be many, but they are enough."

"How is your clone actually able to catch my shuriken, illusions can't do that!"

"You're right illusions can't, but this clone isn't just an illusion, it's a kage bunshin, a solid clone." Naruto informed Mizuki as he stood by his clone. "I told you how I had people who acknowledge me. Well you see one of them observed a shinobi using this technique, and studied it's usage to the point that he could replicate and teach it. He said when he was observing it he found it useful as a training tool. Well after he figured out how to do it he taught me how to do it, and I guess you could say I took to it like an Uchiha to katon jutsu."

Now it was Iruka's turn to be surprised, "If you could do the _**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **_all along then why did you fail the graduation exam?"

"I was completely ready to pass it this morning, but then I got a look at Mizuki. He was acting funny all day, usually he treats me with spite and loathing like most of the other villagers, but today he appeared to be supporting me. I got curious, and so I dug around trying to find more clues, and I wound up picking an unusual chakra coming from Mizuki. Sensing is another skill I've picked up over the years, it's been rather useful when executing my pranks to let me know when people are close. I felt an interesting chakra coming off of Mizuki. It was too faint to be his, but it would have had to have come from someone strong to still be felt around him. It was also slightly familiar. I was thinking where I felt it last when it hit me, it was in an underground passage that I was playing in once. The feeling gave me the creeps, and so I tried to figure out why, and after some research found out that it was one of the lairs of Orochimaru of the sannin. So after remembering that little fact I put two and two together, and realized that Mizuki had to have come into contact with Orochimaru recently, but then how is he still alive? The only way I could figure is that he must be working for Orochimaru. When I realized what was going on I decided to do exactly as Mizuki would expect me to and fail the exam in hopes that Mizuki would try to use me as a pawn, and I could realize what he was after. Mizuki didn't disappoint. My guess is Mizuki was hired to steal the scroll to bring to Orochimaru in exchange for something extremely expensive or extremely powerful." Naruto informed the two older shinobi explaining the events that led them to this point.

Iruka was shocked by the complexity of Naruto's actions, and extremely impressed, but Mizuki would have none of that, "You think you're so smart? So what if you found out my plan? No one will ever know. Iruka's still injured, so he'll be easy prey, and as for you, you're nothing. I don't care how many solid clones you can make: one, ten, one hundred. one hundred times nothing is still nothing!" Mizuki yelled out defiantly as he threw his last large shuriken.

The Naruto clone threw his own shuriken intentionally missing Mizuki's shuriken as the two simply sidestepped said shuriken, the original Naruto doing so while assisting to escape the weapon as well. Mizuki made to avoid the shuriken the clone threw when he noticed that it was way of the mark, and he just watched embed itself in the trunk of the tree where he was standing. "Good thing we didn't make you a ninja! You can't even aim a shuriken right to hit your target! You missed me by a kilometer!" Mizuki said while laughing out loud.

"Trust me I didn't miss." Naruto said just loud enough for Mizuki to hear him. Mizuki looked at the blond just in time to hear him say one word, "Katsu." Before he knew Mizuki was launched from the tree and heading straight towards the ground at worrying speeds. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch as he landed on his right arm, which shattered from the pressure.

Mizuki groaned before looking up at Naruto and yelling out, "It doesn't matter gaki! I can beat you in a fight even if my arm is broken!"

Naruto gave Mizuki a stony glare, before growling out, "This fight is over." Out of the shadows the forest four clones came up behind Mizuki, and three restrained him while the fourth proceeded to use a sleeper hold taught at the academy to knock the chunin unconscious. Mizuki was out within minutes.

Once Mizuki was unconscious Naruto looked up into the shadows and called out, "Alright you can come out now!"

As soon as he gave the order, his eleven friends leapt from the shadows some landing to stand or sit on a tree branch while others chose the solid ground. As soon as everyone had arrived, Shino spoke, "You're a braver man than I, Naruto."

Naruto gave Shino a curious look, "Why do you say that? Mizuki was hardly a challenge."

"I'm not talking about Mizuki, any one of us could have taken him down. I'm talking about braving the wrath of Hinata." Shino corrected.

Naruto just seemed to get more confused, "Wrath of Hinata? What do I have to fear from-"

He was cut off as he felt the aforementioned Hyuga's chakra covered fingers bury themselves in a number of points on Naruto's chest, and Naruto found his lung's no longer useful, "That's for failing the graduation exam again!" She said once she'd finished.

"Sorry, won't happen again." Naruto gasped out.

"It better not." Hinata huffed.

"Can't breath, Hina-hime help, please." Naruto said with the last of his air supply, as he was turning purple, just before he hit the ground.

"Oh alright." She said before reopening the chakra paths around his lungs so they could work to continue supplying Naruto with air.

As soon as his air supply was returned he took a massive gulp of air before beginning his groveling, "Arigato Hina-hime, arigato I promise that I won't do it again." He continued his groveling and promises though he had no idea what he did wrong.

At the sight of their friend's plight all of the individuals not involved broke out into uncontrollable laughter. As they laughed Kiba decided to make a comment, "I don't know what you're laughing at Sasuke, you'd be in the exact same position as him, if your roles were reversed. Sakura has you just as whipped."

Sasuke calmed down at that comment and glared at Kiba, "I am not whipped!" He growled out.

"You better be!" Sakura warned as she cracked her knuckles.

"Of course Sakura-chan." Sasuke said stoically trying to remain as dignified as possible to preserve his pride as he admitted as subservience. This just brought another round of laughter, this time one that Naruto and Hinata joined in as well.

Once Naruto had calmed down, he cleared his throat to gain the attention of his friends, "For that comment, Shino, you get to go with Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji to deliver Mizuki to the ANBU."

"Hm, very well." Shino said accepting his fate.

"What?! why do we have to do the delivery." Ino said.

"Because your the capture and interrogation specialists remember?" Naruto reminded her putting an emphasis on capture. "Neji, Tenten, can you two help them restrain Mizuki? Ino, I want him under heavy genjutsu the whole way there, and if his chakra fluctuates in the slightest I want you to assist in his restraints with your families mental assault and your hair and raiton ninjutsu. Is that understood?"

"Hai." The three mentioned ninja responded in affirmation to their orders. Neji began sealing Mizuki's chakra points while Tenten began began applying seals, both directly to Mizuki's skin, and through paper notes to restrain him. Once they were done Chuji began doing hand seals before calling out, _**"Doton: Iwa Sokubaku no Jutsu." **_as he reached down to the dirt and dragged it up to encase half-way up both of Mizuki's forearms covering everything down to his fingers and then binding the two gauntlets together behind Mizuki's back.

Shikamaru then began doing his own hand seals before declaring his jutsu, "_**Ninpo: Kage Sosa no jutsu." **_As he finished Shikamaru's shadow began stretching out in thin strands that attached to Mizuki's shadow, and Shikamaru began maneuvering Mizuki as if he were a puppet and his shadow was Shikamaru's marionette strings.

As all of this movement was going on around him Iruka was finally coming out of his surprise, he spoke up to gain Naruto's attention, "Naruto come here for a second." That put a stop to all of the movement in the training ground, and brought all of the focus on Iruka.

"Uh, sure Iruka-sensei." He said coming to sit down next to his still kneeling sensei.

"Close your eyes." Iruka instructed.

Naruto gave Iruka a funny look, to which Iruka just raised an eyebrow, and after what seemed to be a silent conversation Naruto conceded, "Alright Iruka-sensei, but no funny business."

"Don't worry Naruto." Iruka assured, as once Naruto had shut his eyes Iruka went about removing his headband and Naruto's goggles, before he tied his headband around Naruto's own head. He noticed that Naruto began smiling as he noticed the shifting of weight, but Iruka just continued with his ploy regardless. Once the headband was firmly tied in place, he told Naruto to open his eyes.

As soon as Naruto did he was met with a scene of his friends all smiling at him at his success. When he looked at Iruka holding his goggles in one hand, and no headband on his head, he could not help, but let a few tears fall down his face as he realized it was his sensei's own headband he was wearing. "Congratulations, Naruto, you are now a shinobi of Konohagakure no sato!" At this declaration Naruto lunged himself at Iruka embracing him in the largest hug that he could. Iruka just smiled down at one of his favorite students. Shortly, after Naruto had attached himself to Iruka Hinata wrapped her arms around the blond, and kissed him on the lips before resting her head on his shoulder. Lee seeing the group hug in occurrence immediately jumped right in as well. Sakura also wanting to congratulate her friend grabbed Sasuke forcing him to come with her as she joined the hug. Ino decided to follow suit dragging Shikamaru along with her, while Tenten did the same with Neji. Shikamaru was not going to go down alone, and so used his shadow to force Kiba and Shino to join in as well. Chouji, not wanting to be done, doubled his size with one of his clan's jutsu before wrapping his now much larger arms around the whole group, engaging in a massive bear hug actually lifting them off the ground. Iruka could not help, but to look at the scene with a warm heart, happy to see all of the support that Naruto really had.

It became too much when Shikamaru used his manipulation of his shadow to have Mizuki join in their group hug, Iruka cleared his throat, "How about we we move this party to Ichiraku's?"

"Right," Naruto agreed, "Shino you're in charge." He said, reminding Shino, and the new Ino-Shika-Cho team that they had a job to do, as he began dragging Iruka to his favorite ramen bar.

X

The late in the afternoon the next day at the apartment that the leaf twelve built together, and as such decided to call it 'the leaf pile' the nine new genin and their three older friends were having a barbecue with their families to celebrate the finishing of the leaf pile and the graduation of the new class. Naruto showed up just as Chouji was beginning to get the meats on the barbecue. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late! I hope you don't I decided to bring my new friend Konohamaru and his friends with me. I've been training with Konohamaru all day."

As soon as Konohamaru and the other young friends came into the picture the female members of the leaves came over to ask the younger kids all about him. As the girls were gushing over them Konohamaru excitedly, commented, "Naruto-nii taught me a super cool, super strong jutsu earlier today, you wanted see?" He asked before going to begin the preparations as the girls looked on in curiosity.

Before he could make the last seal Naruto covered his hands with one of his own, before using the other to cover Konohamaru's mouth to keep him from shouting out the technique's name. "Now, now Konohamaru, a good ninja never gives away his secrets. Besides this might not be the best place for that jutsu." He warned.

Unfortunately, for Naruto enough information was revealed to three of his four female friends, that they were glaring at Naruto with righteous fury, "How dare you teach that technique to a little kid!" Ino yelled furiously.

"You pervert ruining such an innocent mind with that filth you call a jutsu!" Sakura screeched at the top of her lungs.

"You should be ashamed to even be using such an atrocity let alone passing it on to others!" Tenten added her two cents.

"GET HIM!" The three said in unison.

"EEK!" Was the last thing that resembled a word to escape Naruto's mouth before he took off as fast as he could towards wherever he could find a decent enough hiding place.

"Get back here Naruto!" The three yelled as they gave chase. The four ninja were moving so fast that the only sign of where they were was the crack of thunder from Ino's raiton jutsu, the tremble of the Earth quaking from Sakura's fists, and the blast of explosions caused by Tenten's special kunai. Hinata just looked on in amusement, an occasional giggle escaping her lips.

After a few minutes of Hinata watching the chaos that was unfolding before her caused by her Naruto, and the three young children cowering in fear at what was being done to their boss and older brother figure, Hinata began speaking to the air, "Alright, it's all clear, they're long gone. You can come out now Naruto!"

"Whew," Naruto sighed in relief, "I thought my goose was cooked. Let that be a lesson to you Konohamaru: always have a decoy." Hinata just giggled at Naruto's interactions with the younger kids, and how they seemed to be hanging on his every word. Naruto looked up to Hinata, "Arigato for the all clear Hina-hime, but I think I'm gonna have to lay low for awhile."

"I think Chouji would be happy to have someone help him get the pork out of the kitchen and put it on the barbecue. I think he has the beef under control, and he might need you for the chicken too. I'm sure Lee would be glad to play with these chibis, he's always up for hanging with anyone impressionable enough to discover their 'flames of youth'." Hinata told him.

"Why is it that, that statement sounded so pedo?" Naruto asked her.

Hinata giggled, "I can think of a number of reasons."

"His eyebrows, and bodysuit don't help matters any."

"At least he wears a vest and gi over it." Hinata reminded him, "They'll be fine with Lee, now you need to get going to start laying low. Now get." She ordered.

"You're the best Hina-hime." Naruto remarked as he gave her a peck on the cheek before going to join Chouji at the barbecue.

"Just don't forget it." Hinata replied back, as she gave him a 'good game' in response sending him on his way. As soon as Hinata called Lee over he was more than happy to challenge the younger kids to a match of hide and seek.

X

Sakura, Ino, and Tenten sat in the grassy yard near the patio which was set up for the barbecue, with Hinata as the three relaxed and gossiped after their pursuit of the Naruto clone. Lee was still out playing hide and seek with the younger kids, and winning spectacularly, it was safe to say they would be hard pressed to ever decide to play a game like that with that particular genin ever again. Shino, and Shikamaru sat on the patio not far from the barbecue playing a game of shogi, while Kiba played fetch with Akamaru out in the yard. Naruto, and Choji continued working on the food, every once in awhile getting in each other's way and causing a fiasco which would then be resolved with much laughter. Neji and Sasuke stood across from each other sparring in a makeshift ring that they made out in the yard, neither of them were using their Kekkei Genkai, which hardly mattered given the number of times the two sparred together Sasuke already knew Neji's moves and Neji could tell exactly where Sasuke's tenketsu were.

The adults mingled amongst each other. Hana, Tsume and Shibi stood off in one corner talking about the Aburame coming in soon to get rid of the fleas, ticks, and other parasites that would occasionally make themselves known around the kennel. Asuma sat with the former Ino-Shika-Cho trio as they reminisced on their old missions, so that Asuma could get a feel for them and be prepared for his own team, as he was the Sarutobi tasked with the development of the newest trio. Iruka, who was there as one of the largest adult influences in Naruto's life, was standing in a corner having his ear talked off by one Maito Gai, who was there for his own students what with both Lee and Tenten being orphans as well as Naruto. Gai took a turn away from his typical jovial boasts to begin muttering to himself in frustration, "Where is he?"

"Where is who?" Iruka asked surprised by his companion's sudden change in disposition.

"Kakashi Hatake, I knew he would be training some of these kids, so I did my level best to convince him to come to this, but he's not here."

Little did Gai know Kakashi was there the entire time looking out at the party that was before him. He had been impressed with the last thing that he had seen from Sasuke at the apartment fire, not to mention how Naruto had handled the three waterfall ninja a few years back. He would be hard pressed not to admit that he was looking forward to this team assignment if all of the the genin were as skilled as those two, and that was years ago.

Kurenai and Anko were enjoying a refreshment as they observed the girls gossip amongst each other from afar. Kurenai had managed to drag Anko along so that she would not be bored here by herself, and Anko was beginning to be glad that she did, between the amusement of the 'idiots at the grill,' as she liked to call them though she seemed rather impressed by the food the two were cranking out, and watching 'the two pricks beat the tar out of each other,' even though this was mundane compared to their usual spars, but she could not know that, Anko had to admit there was plenty of entertainment to suit her liking. Kurenai was here to observe the relationship that Hinata had with her friends, as she felt affectionate towards Hinata, almost as if the girl were like a younger sister, ever since Hiashi had charged her with Hinata's protection ever since Neji graduated and could no longer watch over her as often. Of course why Hinata needed her protection was hard to see for Kurenai seeing as she seemed to have a constant companion and bodyguard in the form of one blond jinchuuriki. The two seemed so in sync that even here at a gathering of family and friends with the two on opposite ends of the yard, Kurenai would still notice one look up at the other and immediately the other, would react to meet the first's eyes. They would have a silent conversation before returning to their actions. Kurenai was almost envious of the two, but she still found the sight refreshing, when she compared it to the world where they live.

Hiashi and Hizashi sat together on the patio watching the next generation of shinobi and discussing with each other, "They truly are an impressive bunch." Hiashi said to his brother.

"Hai, exceptional, all of them. Though I am amused that they think that we are unaware of just how skilled they are. We are fine shinobi in our own right, and their parents no less. There is only so much that they can hide from us." Hizashi added.

"But, there is still a good deal that they can hide from us. I don't think I expected this apartment idea at all." Tsume said as she and Shibi approached the two Hyuga.

"I think we have very little idea of just how strong they are." Shibi added, causing the Hyuga brothers to huff in indignation that they could possibly be fooled.

"I daresay it won't be long before they'll be able to replace us." Shikaku said leading the Ino-Shika-Cho trio over.

"Hopefully, it won't be for quite some time." Inoichi said with worry in his voice.

"You can't protect your little girl forever Inoichi." Chouza said between chuckles as he patted his friend on his back.

"Doesn't mean I can't try." Inoichi muttered under his breath.

Over with the girls, Ino turned to Tenten, "So how do you think we're going to do with our real genin exam?" She asked the older girl.

Tenten thought about it before replying, "Well it's different for every genin team, but you guys are all at least as prepared for it as we were, and I can tell you how ours went."

/Flashback/

"Alright, to decide whether, or not you three actually remain genin as a team, I'm going to give you a little test." Gai said as he placed an alarm clock down on the ground at the edge of the training ground before approaching the center of the training ground, before turning to face his potential students, "Behind me are two stone pillars. Your task is basically a game of king of the hill. Whoever, can take a pillar and hold it when the alarm goes off in three hours will pass, and become genin. If you can't do that then I will regrettably have to send you back to the academy." Gai informed them before jumping back to land on one of the pillars, "Is that understood?"

"Hai!" The three genin hopefuls responded in unison.

"Good, then when I say 'go' you may begin. Ready...GO!" As soon as Gai gave the word Tenten threw a balled up flashbang tag that went off at the halfway point between them causing Gai to cover his eyes to keep from going blind. When he opened them again he saw Neji coming straight at him. Neji landed on the other pillar and the two began trading attacks both trying to avoid a direct hit. Unfortunately, for Neji Gai's experience won out and he managed to land the first blow against the Hyuuga prodigy; however, once Gai's fist made contact with Neji's stomach he burst into a cloud of smoke. "Kage bunshin?" Gai questioned, before he heard a voice yell out a technique directly behind him.

"_**Hakke **__**Rokujuuyonshou**__**!" **_As Neji landed each strike, calling out the number of the strike, Gai was sent further and further back until he finally was launched half way the pillars and the opposite edge of the clearing. Meanwhile Neji regrouped with Tenten and Lee on top of the pillars.

Lee positioned himself on the side of one of the two pillars where he placed himself in a sprinter's stance. He had apparently, used Tenten's distraction to remove all of his weights. As he tensed up getting ready to launch off of the pillar he called out, "Kaimon, Kyuumon, Seimon kai!" opening before pushing himself off of the pillar he was on with all of his strength and speed, aimed like a missile straight for Gai. As soon Lee launched Tenten let loose three volleys of three arrows, each individual volley connected with ninja wire, with the first volley cutting off Gai's upper path for escape with the following volleys eliminating his side escape paths, and each volley released with a different amount of force so that they would reach Gai's position at the exact same instance and would not clear his path until Lee had made contact with him. Even if Gai could move he would have nowhere to go, and so when Lee reached him he could not halt the punch directed at his chest, and so slipped into unconciousness as his body cleared a path through the ground and trees a one hundred meters long.

/Flashback end/

"Gai-sensei didn't wake up until the alarm went off, and when he did he found himself covered by a barrier that would not let him sit up, let alone stand and fight. There were also overlapping barriers protecting both pillars that we were occupying, and between the barriers was a field riddled with tagged kunai of all kinds of variants. He would've had to deal with a literal mine field to get the pillar back. Needless to say we passed." Tenten said wrapping up her story.

"Wow. I can't believe you did that to a jounin." Sakura said.

"Oh don't get me wrong, Gai-sensei's an amazing ninja whose kicked our asses both individually and as a group every day since then, but we were able to catch him by surprise, and that's going to be your best ally come test day." Tenten informed them sagely.

X

It was shortly after eating dinner, and the sun began to fall, that Naruto noticed that Hinata had left the party. He began looking for her and followed the sense that he felt of her, until he found her at a balcony in the apartment, that branched out from one of the common areas, and faced west. She was staring at the sunset. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her.

"It's beautiful, don't you think?" Hinata asked him.

"Not quite as beautiful, as you." He told her as he kissed her lips.

Once she came up for air she responded, "Um, good answer." She said before they went back to kissing.

X

Elsewhere on the grounds Sakura sat by herself crying into her arms. She looked up as she heard a twig snap...it was only Sasuke, giving away his presence so she would be less startled. "I saw you run out from the party. I wanted to make sure you were alright." He said to her as he approached.

"I'm fine." She said trying to brush off his concern.

"Don't try that with me." He told her, before taking her in his arms, "Come here." He held her close and let her cry into his shoulder.

"Why would they do that to me?" Sakura asked him between sobs.

Sasuke having experienced a something similar did not have an answer for her. He could not tell her it was going to be alright, it might not be. He could not tell her that it was for the best, for all he knew it was not. All he could do was hold her, and assure her that was not leaving anytime soon.

X

The next morning saw all nine new genin entering the academy together and taking seats near one another, as they waited for Iruka to give them their team assignments. Luckily, they did not have to wait long before the chunin walked in and began his speech, "Beginning today all of you are real ninja. But you are still merely rookie genin. The hard part has just started. Now, you will soon be assigned duties by the village. So today we will be creating the three man teams. And each team will have a jounin sensei. You will follow that sensei's instruction as you complete your assigned duties. We tried to balance each team's strength. Now on to the team assignments."

It did not take long before Iruka called out, "Team 7..."


End file.
